Tougher Rules for Wall Street

I read this article on the New York Times called “House Approves Tougher Rules on Wall Street”. The House approved a Democratic plan to tighten federal regulation of Wall Street. This includes the banks, to advance a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis that knocked the economy right out of its chair. The plan is to “create an agency to protect consumers from abusive lending practices, set rules for the trading of some of the sophisticated financial instruments that fueled the crisis, and take steps to reduce the threat that the failure of one or two huge banks or investment firms could topple the entire economy.” How ever their may be additions after the Obama adminastration lookes over and adjusts the plan and the Senate won’t get that document untill next year. The Democratic party of the house said it will be the biggest thing to hit Wallstreet since the Great Depression. Sadly No Republican voted for plan, and 27 Democrats broke ranks with their party. The Republicans strongly criticized the Democratic legislation, “saying it could restrict the availability of credit, cause job loss and lead to future bailouts of failing businesses.” That’s a lot of blame coming from the party that wouldn’t even participate in the matter. The bill is claimed to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which may end up in the billions, in an attempt to head off the kinds of lending practices that lead many homeowners to take on mortgages they could not afford. The bill would also “create a process for dealing with troubles at very large financial institutions that might pose a risk to the financial system and the economy, and require large firms to contribute to a fund to help with an orderly dissolution of those institutions if they are in danger of failing.” Among the things the bill will change includes a number of provisions to address executive compensation, investor protections and regulation of hedge funds. The Demoratics who broke from the party, the Republicans and the Banking industry tried to argue away the bill saying “a central element of the overhaul — represented an unnecessary bureaucratic approach that would give the federal government excessive control over mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.” Where as just a few years ago they were all for the LAW that stated once you went bankrupt the collector companies would still call,”harass”, you for the money you owed instead of going back to zero value. Honestly in my opinion I believe this is a grand idea. And the majority Democrats are right to ignore the banking industry and the Republicans disagreements on this topic because its about darn time Wallstreet got a leash put on it just like the rest of us. Though with the Senates Voting record I will keep my fingers crossed in hopes that it gets passed and prevents any more mishapps from becoming so dang extreme.