Farrell: Wall Street’s 8 Lobbying Goals
Paul Farrell gets his rant on, raging at the $400 million lobbyist effort Wall Street has put forth to kill financial reforms.
He writes that this “signals a resurgence of unregulated free market Reaganomics capitalism, the conservative ideology that killed Glass-Steagall in 1999 creating too-big-to-fail banks, setting the stage for the 2008 meltdown.”
But its much worse than that. What Wall Street wants is to water down reform so it can, according to Farrell, pursue these 8 goals:
(1) evade securities laws
(2) avoid taxes
(3) minimize capital requirements
(4) increase leverage
(5) hide speculative risks
(6) maximize short-term profits
(7) avoid stockholder disclosures, and
(8) manipulate regulators.
I wish I could say I disagree — but I don’t. Unless we get substantial reform, nothing will change. Why?
“Wall Street needs to continue running the same scam on taxpayers in order to get their mega-bonuses. They have lost their moral compass, sold their soul to the devil, lack a conscience, have no interest in the public.”
Well said . . .
>
Source:
Clash of the Titans: Obama vs. Goldman’s Reaganomics
PAUL B. FARRELL
Marketwatch, April 20, 2010
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/president-obama-vs-goldmans-reaganomics-2010-04-20
Tweet
Facebook
Reddit
Digg this!
April 20th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Ever since I set foot in the joint, it was always “you eat what you kill”. If you question the jungle metaphor, you get shown the door. Don’t let it hit you in the bum.
It is failure by design, a perfect collapse by a culture of piracy and pillaging of the populance.
They got medieval on yo’ ass.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Any good parasite knows that it is better to not kill your host. Wall Street appears to have forgotten this.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
I have no doubt they will get what they want. But BSO wants his cap-and-trade energy bill as a further sop to them (his future benefactors once he’s out of office – you too can become a billionaire). And they should too. But hey, they want it all and usually get it.
But BSO can’t get it without some notion of voter directed smoke and mirrors. A public spanking. Before November.
The only question is how much phony baloney consumer protection gets written in as a sop to the “voters”.
And how many thousands of pages of legalese will it take mask the true end result.
So once again it will simply be another corporatocracy exercise in voter deception.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
And Farrell’s rant is dead on.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Look, if I have observed anything about D.C., it’s that more regulation in this area will not help. Various administrations have figured ways to render ANY regulation they want toothless. Fishgut an agency budget, appoint pro-deregulation appointees or Wall Street insiders, hire inexperienced/under-paid staff….I don’t care what the legislation passes, the POTUS signs, if there is not a mandate to enforce what is on the books, then who cares.
You say more rules, I say more enforcement. At first glance they may seem similar, but they can not be more different.
The rules in a terrible school are remarkably similar to the rules at a great school. Are we really surprised to find that the school with rules enforced is a better environment that is conducive to learning??
April 20th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
The person who convinced regulators that CDS is not insurance deserves the George Orwell “Newspeak” award…
April 20th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Can we start talking about how strong EARNINGS are?
AAPL just bailed me out of my GS losses. Man do EPS look good. Phenomenal! Even GS… has posted $13/shr in the last 2 Qs (thats 6x PE, and the comp has cash!).
I dont think you will see sub $20/shr in a Q on SPX ever again. Its over. Recovery will feed on itself in Q2. AAPL will have iPads. Banks will have parabolic improvement in mortgage credit bonds and the drop in continued acceleration in credit losses. Tech and consumer products will have awesome global demand. US economy will have payrolls of +250k, +350k, +450k. Energy tech will be the next bubble. Healthcare is going global. Etc, Etc.
Like I have been saying for 1-year now… get long, get loud. Business cycle, its easy.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
DOW 36K next baby! Whoo hoo! It sooo easy.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
@cognos: Lots of luck with this one.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Summers met with the big three New York bankers and told them to call off the lobbyists. They didn’t. Goldman got punched int he face (along partisan lines in a 3-2 vote.) Message to bankers: Don’t bring a lobbyist to a boxing match.
If I were you, I wouldn’t doubt the seriousness of intent of this White House. Look at the drubbing they’ve taken on health insurance reform to do the right thing. You don’t think they want to do the right thing on financial reform? Think again.
Oh and I hope you didn’t take all those heart-felt, emotion-laden, protestations by the GOP mouth pieces that “Obama’s reforms will institutionalize bailouts.” They were kidding.
Republicans soften on Wall Street reform bill
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-financial-reform-20100421,0,7816153.story
It’s happening.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Love that Ben Stein just wrote a piece outraged at Goldman in the SEC fraud case.
He is AS dumb today AS he was when he was saying, “subprime is not a big deal”.
Gotta love it.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Cognos – can you provide a source for your claim that you have been so bullish for a year? We can trace you back here a few months but I’m sure you were posting somewhere. Show us, I’d very much like to see what you were saying a year ago.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:22 am
Wall Street’s 8 Lobbying Goals
That does it. They just made the devil envious
April 21st, 2010 at 2:39 am
Given all the bad things the vampire squids have done, this case, Paulson versus some smarty pants bankers in Deutschland, seems very weak and weird. Brokers don’t reveal their clients ever, and even if Paulson had called up the Alemanni and laughed and giggled and pointed, it appears the Teutons would have bought the stuff anyway.
Interesting to speculate why the SEC brought this case, with an unsympathetic victim and a heroic (in some media) protagonist. This was the best case the dolts at the SEC could come up with?
April 21st, 2010 at 5:14 am
Wall Street has its allies in CNBC and Fox but his is a time and place where ” giants” are made. Can anyone identify one ?
April 21st, 2010 at 5:48 am
Cognos, I have to admit I have missed out on a real chance of a lifetime on this rally from 6,600. I just couldn’t convince myself it was for real since the real economy sucks donkey d!cks. However, I have learned that the market in no way, shape or form has to match the economy. It is all about the markets comparisons (i.e. we are no longer staring into the abyss).
That being said, I just can’t find the inner strength to go long here. I have this awful feeling that the minute, I mean minute I go back all-in, the market will have another “event” and my capital will go bye-bye.
Can you tell us how Corp. profits can continue to climb when so few family’s have disposable income to spare? Won’t quarterly/yearly comparison’s start to get a lot tougher soon?
April 21st, 2010 at 5:50 am
By the way, anyone hear from Steve Barry lately? I wonder if he EVER sold his massive QID position? Do you think he jumped?
April 21st, 2010 at 7:25 am
Farrell is just in another long line of political hacks posing as market commentators. We have a systemic breakdown in global finance led by any number of bubbles and he spends his time trying to affix blame through his political lens. How blind is he? He wants to let the people–the Dodd’s of the world who were very instrumental in crafting these assorted meltdowns, design the supposed cure. You can’t make up stupidity like this. Worst still are the folks who don’t realize the fox is writing the rules. As I said almost two years ago it is better, always better, to do nothing when a meltdown occurs. Instead we roost on an ever growing shit pile led.
Look across the broad spectrum of this current government and see who has been on the teat of Goldman and the other assorted players. These are folks you want to write the new rules? You deserve your fate.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:37 am
As regards the Dodd bill specifically:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/04/guest-post-dodd-financial-reform-bill-is-all-holes-and-no-cheese.html
But, but, as Farrellites scream, look over there a tea partier, run for your lives.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:56 am
“I have to admit I have missed out on a real chance of a lifetime on this rally from 6,600…”
Cdale_dog,
why, if you do, do you think that the only invest-able vehicles are those of ‘Paper’?
see these, few, charts of Base Metals, many have traded, up, over the same time-frame, as much, if not more so, as the ‘Major (Equity) Indices’..
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/04/charts-of-day-are.html
not to mention Ag, Pd, and/or Pt..
~~
to the Post,
JasRas Says: April 20th, 2010 at 9:33 pm makes, all, the point that needs to be understood..
the SEC didn’t need any ‘New’ Rules to bring the case against GS, et al., did they?
“Wall St.” is ‘lucky’ that AG “Bag” Holder sits atop the DoJ..
April 21st, 2010 at 8:03 am
Cdale_dog –
Family income’s are fine. Recovering fast. Jobs recovery will be much faster than expected from here. And dont forget that low low low housing costs AMP disposable income. Much more so than “MEW” ever did.
Housing is typically about 40% of the consumption basket. Now its what 30%? Thats a 10% addition to disposable income going forward? I think this is a more positive “new normal” that will emerge.
When the dot-com bubble burst we had all these “dot-com” skills that we didnt really need and legacy dot-coms like Xoom.com, Pets.com, Infopace.com — little value there. But with a housing bubble, there is significant lasting “wealth” in the form of 2,000 sq ft condos, vacation homes, and skills, training and infrastructure to create the same. This IS wealth. Its just that the “price” of the homes are marked down. $ price does not equal “wealth”.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:10 am
Patrick Neid Says: April 21st, 2010 at 7:25 am
PN,
quite so, as you allude, Farrell is a Professional Myopic–offered up to lead the Blind–around, in the same, familiar, Circles.
though, surely, We should never bother to endeavor this: “Look across the broad spectrum of this current government and see who has been on the teat of Goldman and the other assorted players..” mean feat, nor, forfend, to inquire thusly: http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=Goldman+Sachs+Trilateral+Commission+Council+on+Foreign+Relations
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/endeavor
April 21st, 2010 at 8:37 am
Wall Street has its allies in CNBC and Fox but his is a time and place where ” giants” are made. Can anyone identify one ?
only in the headache category
April 21st, 2010 at 9:06 am
400 mill? That should be enough to Harvard b-school educate all of Congress three times over. Does it really cost that kind of change to show these people the light?
April 21st, 2010 at 10:39 am
Bill Black’s eye-popping opening statement at House FinServ hearing on Lehman failure.
A systemic failure of regulators to monitor blatant fraud in the housing market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-HTylLzXu8&
April 21st, 2010 at 5:50 pm
I’m as cynical as the next guy about financial reform and the shaping of same by lobbyists, but BR, dude, Paul Fricking Farrell? This guy is a nut bag of the first order. Couldn’t you find anyone sane to quote?
April 21st, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Obama should immediately recruit Bill Black and Janet Travakoli to join his staff. And get rid of Geithner and Bernanke. That would restore confidence and credibility and change the picture for the elections later this year.