This week supporters of the Occupy movement submitted a very detailed, laser-sharp 325 page comment to the Securities and Exchange Commission on the topic of financial reforms set out in the Dodd Frank Bill and the embedded Volcker Rule. In doing so, the Occupy movement has solidified itself as a serious and powerful voice ably equipped to stand up to the banking industry and lobbyists. Here is Mother Jones:
Point by point, it methodically challenges the arguments of finance industry lobbyists who want to water down last year’s historic Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms. The lobbyists have been using the law’s official public comment period to try to kneecap the reforms, and given how arcane financial regulation can be, they might get away with it. But Occupy the SEC is fighting fire with fire, and in so doing, defying stereotypes of the Occupy movement. Its letter explains:
Occupy the SEC is a group of concerned citizens, activists, and professionals with decades of collective experience working at many of the largest financial firms in the industry. Together we make up a vast array of specialists, including traders, quantitative analysts, compliance officers, and technology and risk analysts.
The letter, which has been in the works for months, passionately defends the Volcker Rule, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms meant to prohibit consumer banks from engaging in risky and speculative “proprietary” trading. That barrier had collapsed in the 1990s with the gradual watering down, and eventual repeal, of the Glass-Steagall Act. Occupy the SEC explains why this became a problem:
Proprietary trading by large-scale banks was a principal cause of the recent financial crisis, and, if left unchecked, it has the potential to cause even worse crises in the future. In the words of a banking insider, Michael Madden, a former Lehman Brothers executive: “Proprietary trading played a big role in manufacturing the CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and other instruments that were at the heart of the financial crisis. . . if firms weren’t able to buy up the parts of these deals that wouldn’t sell. . .the game would have stopped a lot sooner.”
The entire Occupy SEC submission can be found here.
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More on the intuition of “fairness” behind the Occupy movement.
http://themindbodyspiritblog.com/occupy-movement-part-1/
“Fairness” is relative, isn’t it? Is it fair that 45% of Americans aren’t paying Federal Income Tax? Is it fair that union janitors in NYC or Chicago collect $150k or more per year?
Is it fair that Warren Buffet has personally made BILLIONS from the taxpayer bailouts of AIG and BAC, not to mention not having his company sued for the irresponsible (perhaps fraudulent) behavior of Moody’s rating agency that was one of 3 ratings agencies that incorrectly rated all the mortgage bonds as AAA?. Let me really clear: I’m not saying BRK made billions on the bailouts (which they did), I’m saying St. Warren himself made BILLIONS personally since so much of his wealth is tied up in BRK stock. St Warren can look folksy and be an ‘aw shucks’ prop behind Obama’s class warfare rhetoric, but he is personally making BILLIONS from all the bailouts. How is that fair? He is the poster child of unfairness in my book. But since he’s a Democrat, he will escape totally blame free, just like the rich Florentines bought indulgences from the Church to grease their path to a heavenly afterlife. Today, the arbiter of morality is no longer the church, it’s the liberal media, who heap false praise on St Warren and throw mud at anyone honestly trying to address the problems brought about by reckless spending and unpayable debt (Tea, anyone?).
I truly hope the “Occupy” folks stay on a non-violent course, file reports with the various regulatory agencies to fix their grievences, and peacefully engage in the legislative process, just like the Tea Party has done so far. Somehow I doubt they will.
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