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How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform It's bad enough that the banks strangled the Dodd-Frank law. Even worse is the way they did it - with a big assist from Congress and the White House. Two years ago, when he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, President Barack Obama bragged that he'd dealt a crushing blow to the extravagant financial corruption that had caused the global economic crash in 2008. "These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history," the president told an adoring crowd in downtown D.C. on July 21st, 2010. "In history." This...

Bank of America will charge clients new monthly fees if their accounts do not meet a minimum balance, the bank's CEO Brian Moynihan said on Tuesday. ... These and other measures will allow the bank to compensate for revenue lost due to new regulations put in place following the 2008 financial crisis that led the US government to salvage many bank with massive bailouts, he said. "Over the next 12 months, we will reset the entire product line." Bank of America has recently introduced a new account, called e-account, offering reduced fees for customers using automated services, while reducing the...

Congresswoman Maxine Waters put in the spotlight on the Obama financial reform pointing out that the legislation goes above and beyond to secure access to money for minorities and women: I was honored to serve on the conference committee of the Wall-street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. I am happy to say that much of the legislation I authored has access for women and minority rights, for shareholders more accountable Consumer Protection Bureau and assistance for struggling and unemployed homeowners was included in the final legislation that was signed by President Obama. I am particularly proud of offices of...

Buried deep inside the new "financial reform" law is a scheme to force affirmative action on small-business lending -- a "reform" with ominous implications for the US economy. Aimed at curtailing supposed discrimination, the race-based lending mandate is guaranteed to have perverse effects -- just like the drive for "racial fairness" in mortgage lending paved the way for the subprime crisis and the 2008 financial meltdown. The new Dodd-Frank banking law sets up a data-collection system to monitor small-business loans for racial bias. Lenders must report if a business that applied for a loan is minority-owned, and whether the application...

President Obama and the left like to talk about sacrifice as if it is some sort of patriotic duty to let the government take your hard earned money and give it to another. For instance: You have the right to drive a Chevy Volt if you choose. But why should the government subsidize that choice by taking money from the pockets of your fellow citizens to support your choice? If you want to drive a car that costs $41,000.00 so be it but you better be able to pay for it without expecting a subsidy from your neighbor. I received...

If you thought it ended with ObamaCare, think again. By “it,” we mean the irresponsible act of Congress to ramrod massive legislation through its chambers with far more regard for incestuous political praise than public service, only to find out, after the fact, that assaults on our Constitution and our individual freedoms were buried in the thousands of pages that this same Congress didn’t have time to read. Bob Beauprez (R) is a former Congressman from Colorado, now political commentator, who can only sum up what he is witnessing in the past 18 months under an Obama, Reid and Pelosi...

If you thought it ended with ObamaCare, think again. By “it,” we mean the irresponsible act of Congress to ramrod massive legislation through its chambers with far more regard for incestuous political praise than public service, only to find out, after the fact, that assaults on our Constitution and our individual freedoms were buried in the thousands of pages that this same Congress didn’t have time to read. Bob Beauprez (R) is a former Congressman from Colorado, now political commentator, who can only sum up what he is witnessing in the past 18 months under an Obama, Reid and Pelosi...

Remember the “2,074-page monstrosity” that was ObamaCare? . . . Forget about it. Somewhere in obscurity, where legislation is actually written, the game of one-up-manship appears to be completely out of hand, as the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed the financial reform bill that eclipsed 2,300 pages. Like most experts in the financial world, economic analyst and professional investment consultant, Peter D’Arruda, is watching this legislation unfold with reservations—not just because of the size of the bill, bloated with hundreds of new regulations, but because of what Senator Dodd (D-CT) said as he ushered the bill through . . ....

Whenever the legislation includes the following, you know we’re in trouble: “communities”, "low-income, minority, or underserved”, “fair lending”. And that is what this legislation is all about. They will train the ‘less fortunate’ to be financially literate so after they get all the money from the workers of America they will know how to invest it. It has been another eye-opener to see just how far this country has progressed toward socialism and the Obama dream. Granted, there have been many laws on the books that did bits and pieces of the new legislation, but as the Progressives get more...

Big news this morning that the financial reform bill exempts the SEC from transparency. Perhaps even bigger news is that the corrupt DOJ is also exempt. The bottom line, no transparency at either agency. Is this how we will fund the creeping lawlessness at the DOJ? Mary Shapiro, SEC head, and Eric Holder are free to ignore whistleblowers again, and hide whatever needs to be hidden.

New Controversy: Financial Reform Bill Contains Quotas For Minority Hiring On Wall Street Joe Weisenthal | Jul. 28, 2010, 5:27 AM This is always how it goes with big bills. Politicians and the media focus on a few big issues (prop trading, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, etc.) while small, but controversial measures, get slipped in the back door, and then become the subject of fascination several days after the bill has passed. It happened with healthcare, after people suddenly realized there was a provision to go after fast food. And now with the Dodd-Frank Act, according to POLITICO, there's...

The new financial reform law has what some lawyers call a secret weapon against fraud on Wall Street and in corporate America: the promise of a million-dollar jackpot to insiders who reveal an illegal scheme to the government. Tucked in the massive bill is a provision that for the first time extends a concept long applied to government contracts to the private sector. It gives whistle-blowers a mandatory 10% — and as much as 30% — of what the government recoups in fines and settlements in financial fraud cases. These can include insider trading, false earnings reports and classic Ponzi...

On Wednesday, if all goes as planned, President Barack Obama will sign the financial-reform bill crafted by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, sponsored by the Democratic Party in both houses, and supported by three Republican Senators – Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine. When the bill is signed, we will be told, as we have repeatedly been told in the last few months, that the measures included within it will prevent future financial crises of the sort that we have suffered from over the last two years.

The Financial Reform give the USA new bureaucracies of all kind: Advisory Committee, Office of the Investor Advocate, and of course the … the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that will include the Consumer Advisory Board. It is not likely that the first-time home buyer will have the connections or the resources to influence who will sit on the Consumer Advisory Board. It is likely that the Wall Street will have the ability to lobby them. It is not likely that the senior taking care of the retirement funds will go all the way to the Office of the Investor...

Scott Brown was the Man with the truck during his senatorial campaign. Today he assisted President Obama in the sweeping overhaul of the American financial system. The least we can say he broke his promise for no new taxes that will cripple the economy. The truth is the Gov now will call the shots on Wall Street. Do you think your money is safer now? The Rock Star of the tea party movement is a star no more. He is a poster boy again, but this time it is not for Cosmo, but for the Obama agenda. Remember how the...

"It is not a perfect bill, I will be the first to admit that. We don't know ultimately how well the ideas we've incorporated here will achieve the results we desire. It will take the next economic crisis, as certainly it will come, to determine whether or not the provisions of this bill will actually provide this generation or the next generation of regulators with the tools necessary to minimize the effects of that crisis when it happens," Sen. Chris Dodd said Thursday.

The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill, ostensibly aimed at reforming Wall Street and preventing a future financial crisis, will impose racial and gender quotas on financial institutions if passed, according to economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth. Section 342 of the bill will establish Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in at least 20 federal financial services agencies. These offices will be tasked with implementing “standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the fair inclusion and utilization of minorities, women, and minority-owned and women-owned businesses in all business and activities of the agency at all levels, including in procurement, insurance, and...

So Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins now say they'll provide the last crucial votes to get the Dodd-Frank financial reform through the Senate. Hmmm. Could this be Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's secret plan to take back the Senate, guaranteeing another year or two of regulatory and lending uncertainty and thus slower economic growth? Probably not, but that still may be the practical effect. This week White House aides leaked to the press that President Obama may seek a review of regulations that are restraining business confidence and bank lending. Yet Dodd-Frank, with its 2,300 pages, will unleash...

I just called & waited about 90 seconds. I said "please vote no on the financial reform bill"

Scott Brown will vote for the Democrats' financial-regulation bill, thus ensuring its passage: WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Scott (R-MA) today issued the following statement regarding the Wall Street reform bill: “I've spent the past week reviewing the Wall Street reform bill. I appreciate the efforts to improve the bill, especially the removal of the $19 billion bank tax. As a result, it is a better bill than it was when this whole process started. While it isn't perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial...