I wonder what financial reform is reforming?

What does the new financial "reform" bill reform? I've been wondering this, and so have a lot of other people. The 2,000-page bill is another monstrosity of the Democrat-controlled Congress, like the 2,000-page health care "reform" bill. You remember? The one that had to be passed so we could find out what was in it, as Pelosi famously stated.

Investor's Business Daily, which ought to have a handle on this, admits it doesn't yet.

We've just scratched the surface here. We'll have more to say in coming weeks as we plow through this monster of a bill that appears to reform little but harm a lot.

In this article, IBD is concerned that the real reform -- to prevent another financial disaster -- is not implemented in the bill.

David Pauly from Bloomberg, in an article for Business Week, confirms this view.

U.S. lawmakers and their Wall Street supporters may have guaranteed another financial disaster like the one we’re still recovering from.
Congress last week thought it was protecting the banks -- especially the six dominate players -- when it gutted the financial reform bill.

Ignoring evidence that investors were defrauded by subprime mortgage instruments that even bank bosses didn’t understand, lawmakers are refusing to rein in the culprits.

The bill was sponsored by Barney Franks and Chris Dodd. These are the two idiots who had such a vibrant role in the last disaster. So the same people who were involved in the last crisis are trying to fix the next one.

Pauly concludes:

Congress never considered real bank reform: Breaking up the Wall Street behemoths by separating commercial banking from riskier investment banking. Then if investors want to bet on Morgan Stanley making bets on credit default swaps, they can. The punters will always be with us.


It’s unfortunate that the now publicly held investment banks can’t revert to partnerships, with the partners at risk instead of the shareholders.

Don't you feel better already?