Mary Bottari's blog

With over 400 amendments readied for the committee debate on Senator Chris Dodd’s financial reform package, Banking Chairman Dodd decided to ditch the democratic process and vote his own version of the bill out of committee. This moves the real debate to the Senate floor and worsens progressive’s chance of improving the bill.

To: U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
Chairman Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

Dear Senator Dodd,

As women and as taxpayers, we are writing to you today to tell you that size matters.

Usually we love big. Big boxes of chocolate, big boxes of wine, big — well you know. But when it comes to big banks and big bank bailouts, it’s a whole different story.

As you get ready to take up bank reform in your committee next week, we need to talk.

Congress Daily reported today that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it would spend at least $3 million in a multi-state TV ad buy opposing Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd's (D-CN) bill to revamp the financial regulatory system. David Hirschmann, President of the Chamber's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said his organization would spend the money as the bill gets ready to be marked up and voted upon in the Senate Banking Committee next week.

Here are some highlights regarding the 1,300 page bank reform bill released by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CN) yesterday.

THE GOOD
1) Capital requirements and leveraging requirements to be set by regulators (although some reformers would like these set in law to makes sure they do the job).
2) Creates a council of systemic risk regulators called a Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is generally a good idea. We don’t want to just leave it to the Federal Reserve.
3) Obama’s “Volcker Rule” included, not perfect, but at least it made the cut.

Michael Lewis, author of one of the defining books about Wall Street excess, "Liar's Poker," last night told 60 Minutes that bonuses at banks bailed out by the government are akin to "a very elegant form of theft." How does the theft work? "[The big banks] have access to a zero percent loan in virtually unlimited quantities from the Federal Reserve. You can take that money and reinvest it in Treasury bonds or government agency securities and you will get the spread and you could do it over and over. You're essentially borrowing from the government ... and taking a cut," says Lewis.

Headlines blared that Senate Banking Chair Chris Dodd was done with dithering and ready to move ahead with a financial reform package without Republican support. Financial reform groups should be celebrating this as a positive move that would roll back some of the worst elements of the bill inserted during recent bipartisan negotiations, including the nutty effort to put the Consumer Financial Protection Agency into the Federal Reserve -- an institution about as popular as the IRS.

Today the Funny or Die crew took the fight for financial reform to a knew level, tapping the talents of reality TV star Heidi Montag who delivers the message that "with hidden fees and standard interest rate increases, that $11,000 jaw line can end up costing $50,000 dollars!" Montag is famous for her multiple plastic surgeries featured recently on the cover of People magazine.

Watching the devolution of the bank reform bill in the U.S. Senate has been painful. Banking Chairman Chris Dodd’s original proposal unveiled last year had numerous strengths, most significantly the removal of bank supervisory authority from the Federal Reserve. Dodd had decided that the Fed had done such a lousy job ignoring the housing bubble and failing to crack down on predatory lending in the mortgage market that it shouldn’t be given a second chance.

The steady stream of revelations regarding the role Goldman Sachs has played in the fleecing of Europe should reinvigorate efforts in Congress to rein in the reckless trading that could send the global economy into another tailspin.

One Man's Temper Tantrum Cuts Unemployment Benefits for 200,000 People! 

One Senator, Jim Bunning (R-KY), was able to stall Senate action so that the federal extended Unemployment Insurance program expired on February 28. Watch the video, of Bunning running from reporters asking him why he is objecting to renewing this lifeline for American workers and the communities where they live.  More than 200,000 long-term unemployed people this week alone are losing benefits they should be getting. If Congress delays further, up to 1.2 million will lose desperately needed benefits by the end of March.  Take action today by going to BanksterUSA and sending a message to your member of Congress to save Unemployment Insurance!