Corporatocracy Redux: Banking Reform

A year and a half after the 2nd most devastating financial calamity in the history of the United States... we are still waiting on a first piece of legislation as a response to prevent it from happening again. Especially when considering populist anger at the bailouts of big banks and the ensuing doubling of the unemployment rate in America... what seemed like a sure thing as swift and effectual reform has been unable to get out of the Senate Banking Committee.


Friday, Reuters reported (click here) that Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd (see above) said that financial reform legislation is currently at an impasse. This isn't a bill being debated on the floor of the Senate... they have yet to get out of committee! Last August... a year after the financial crash, Democrat Senator Dick Durbin... frustrated with a lack of progress on reform... when referring to the Congress, said that the banks "frankly own the place." Behind the scenes, the same banks that caused the chaos and needed government intervention are now heavily lobbying Congress to block reform or keep "teeth" out of anything passed. If we study the history of the Great Depression, we know that a lot of legislative reforms emanated from it. Not sure what the future holds on the subject of reform for this crisis... but we are off to a dubious start.



In the meantime... the bank fat cats... continue to roll around in the money.