Wall Street Deregulation Garners Bipartisan Support Despite Devastating JPMorgan Report

[green for victory]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/wall-street-deregulation-_n_2910168.html

Posted: 03/19/2013 7:38 pm EDT | Updated: 03/19/2013 7:45 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan cadre of House lawmakers will move on legislation to deregulate Wall Street derivatives Wednesday, less than a week after Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) released a devastating report on the multibillion-dollar derivatives debacle at JPMorgan Chase. "The road to hell is paved with these bills," said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), an advocate of financial reform.

The House Agriculture Committee will mark up several derivatives bills on Wednesday despite opposition from a coalition of public interest and consumer advocacy groups known as Americans for Financial Reform. The effort to weaken regulation of these sophisticated financial instruments follows multiple in-depth autopsies of the London Whale debacle at JPMorgan, which has already cost the company $6.2 billion and tarnished its reputation as a prudent risk manager. It also comes less than three years after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, set a host of new standards for the derivatives business, including heightened transparency and reduced taxpayer support.


Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, smiles while testifying before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington on June 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

In a statement provided to The Huffington Post, Levin expressed exasperation at the House efforts. "Last year, some members of Congress supported watering down Dodd-Frank derivative safeguards, but abandoned those efforts after the world learned that JPMorgan Chase had lost billions of dollars on derivative trades made out of its London office," Levin said. "It is incredible that less than a week after new JPMorgan Whale hearings detailed how the bank's London office piled up risk, hid losses, and dodged regulatory oversight, that some House members are again supporting the weakening of derivative safeguards."

Derivatives were at the heart of the 2008 financial collapse. The preferred financial vehicle for a host of risky bets on the U.S. mortgage market, they created artificial demand for subprime mortgages, encouraging banks and mortgage brokers to extend loans to doomed borrowers. Derivatives pushed insurance giant AIG to the brink of bankruptcy and proved a hotbed for abuse on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs famously settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for betting against the very derivatives it created and sold to its clients...More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/wall-street-deregulation-_n_2910168.html

Lots of time for this! No time for jobs though...