There
are a lot of bills, laws and acts that are being talked about in the political
field. In the midst of a presidential campaign season there may be things
thrown around that we don’t know about. So I’m starting a series to clear up
any confusion on some of these things. I’ll provide general information on each
item, discuss the positive and the negative and then state where each candidate
stands on the issue.
Today I’ll be discussing Dodd – Frank:
Key Players
Barack Obama
2008 Financial Contribution Numbers
Goldman Sachs –
$1.013 Million
JP Morgan Chase –
$808,000
Citigroup - $736,000
Morgan Stanley -
$512,000
Barney Frank
2008 Financial Contribution Numbers
Bank of America
JPMorgan Chase &
Co. – $11,000
Morgan Stanley -
$11,000
Ernst & Young -
$10,000
PriceWaterhouse
Coopers - $10,000
Goldman Sachs -
$10,000
Independent Community
Bankers of America
Chris Dodd
2008 Financial Contribution Numbers
Royal Bank of Scotland
Citigroup Inc. -
$184,000
Bear Stearns - $111,000
Morgan Stanley -
$105,000
Goldman Sachs -
$90,000
Merrill Lynch -
$82,000
Lehman Brothers -
$74,400
JPMorgan Chase &
Co. - $71,800
Richard Shelby
2008 Financial Contribution Numbers
Citigroup Inc. -
$120,000
PriceWaterhouse
Coopers - $98,000
JPMorgan Chase &
Co. – $86,000
Ernst & Young –
$63,000
Thanks to three decades of
deregulation (1980 – 2000) (Jimmy Carter’s Depository
Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 and the Gramm –
Leach – Bliley Act) the banks were allowed to speculate, invest in hedge funds
and write up predatory mortgages. These things lead to the market crash of ’07
– ’08 and caused Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Barack Obama to pass reactionary
regulation because the 1930’s reactionary regulation had been legislatively
dwindled down to nothing. This left the market to gluttonously implode from
playing with money that wasn’t there. George W. Bush tried to correct the
problem with a bank bailout (TARP) and the banks sat on the money (Whether W.
knew the banks were going to sit on the money is a – whole – ‘nother
debate/conversation). Needless to say, W. didn’t try to regulate the banks and,
despite what I think is excessive additions to an already excessive
bureaucracy, Barack Obama did.
Here
are some examples of the bureaucracy I mentioned:
Financial Stability Oversight Council: This council has broad authorities to identify and
monitor excessive risks to the U.S.
Office of Financial Research: Was created to improve the quality of financial data
available to policy makers and facilitate more robust and sophisticated
analysis of the financial system.
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection: Regulates consumer financial products and services in
compliance with federal law.
Examples
of regulation:
The
Volcker Rule, which restricts United
States
A
ban on proprietary trading by commercial banks, whereby deposits are used to
trade on the bank’s personal accounts.
“Taxpayers
shall bear no losses from liquidating any financial company under this title
and any losses shall be the responsibility of the financial sector recovered
through assessments.” (H.R. 4173 Section. 214)
Title
VII of Dodd – Frank, the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of
2010 repeals exemption from regulation for security – based swaps under the
Gramm – Leach – Bliley Act.
Title
XIII amends the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to limit the TARP,
by reducing the funds available by $225 billion (from $700 billion to $475
billion) and further mandated that unused funds can not be used for any New
programs.
So,
regardless of how skeptical I am, was and want to be, it feels to me that Dodd
– Frank was good in the way of regulation, and that regulation is necessary, as
is proved by the negative effects of the slow repeal and disassembling of Glass
– Steagall. The counter arguments are that it will make it more expensive to
start up a small business (isn’t that the republican argument against every
bill?) and that it didn’t repeal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them
with private mortgage lending.
So,
what do the 2012 Presidential Candidates have to say on this particular issue?
(In the
spirit of OWS and the ideology of ‘Getting money out of politics’ I’ve decided
to include with each candidates’ opinion of Dodd – Frank, their top and most
interesting financial contributions for the current presidential race.)
Michele Bachmann –
Carbon Concepts – $15,000
College Loan Corp. - $12,000
Hubbard Broadcasting - $10,000
Empire Office Inc. - $10,000
Fager Inc. - $10,000
! Citizens United - $5,000
! Koch Industries - $5,000
(Michele
Bachmann has 18.9% incomplete or non disclosure.*)
“I’m
pleased to offer a full repeal of the job-killing Dodd-Frank financial
regulatory bill,” Bachmann said. “Dodd-Frank grossly expanded the federal
government beyond its jurisdictional boundaries. It gave Washington
Herman Cain –
Wausau Homes
- $9,000
! Wells Fargo
Cold Spring
Granite - $6,000
Cinco
Natural Gas - $5,000
(Herman Cain
has a 50.6% incomplete or non disclosure.)
"I would get the government off the backs of the banks, that's one of
the reasons we have so many problems," Cain said. "Many of the banks
can't do some of the things they want to do to help folks. A lot of the
problems have to do with regulations or the threat of regulations coming out of
Washington D.C.
Newt Gingrich –
Rock
– Tenn Co. - $25,000
Poet
LLC - $17,000
First
Fiscal Fund - $15,000
State Mutual Insurance - $10,000
American
Fruits and Flavors - $10,000
!
Wells Fargo
!
Citizens United - $5,000
(Newt
Gingrich has 10.3% incomplete or non disclosure.)
“And if you want to put people in
jail, I will second what Michelle said: let's look at Barney Frank and Chris
Dodd and let’s look at the politicians who profited from the environment and
the politicians who put this country in trouble.” – Huffington
Post
Jon Huntsman –
Fertitta
Entertainment - $32,000
UFC
- $26,000
Station
Casinos - $26,000
Crow
Holdings - $20,000
Fresenius
Medical Care - $17,000
Huntsman
Corp. - $14,000
!
Morgan Stanley - $9,000
!
JPMorgan Chase and Co. - $7,000
!
Goldman Sachs - $6,000
Microsoft
Corp. - $6,000
(Jon
Huntsman has 21.8% incomplete or non disclosure.)
“The
jobs plan Huntsman proposed would repeal Dodd-Frank, and he has said the law is ‘making it impossible to get our life blood to
small businesses.’” – ThinkProgress
Gary Johnson –
Tower
Energy Group - $10,000
Welcom
Products - $5,000
Corriente
Advisors - $5,000
Ryan
LLC - $5,000
Google
Inc. - $2,000
(Gary
Johnson has 30.7% incomplete or non disclosure.)
"Repeal [Dodd-Frank], for
starters, understanding that this is just another example of government passing
laws with unintended consequences."
"This is government picking winners and losers. In this
case, the big banks are bigger, the whole notion of 'too big to fail' lives on,
and that was just codified in this legislation.” – Benzinga
Radio
Fred Karger –
RMI
Investment - $2,000
Dahn
Corp. - $2,000
Murchison
and Cumming - $2,000
ABC
Advocacy Group - $1,000
Corcoran
Group - $1,000
(Fred
Karger has 6.8% incomplete or non disclosure.)
I was not able to find
anything in the way of Fred Karger being for or against Glass – Steagall. I
will add that he seems to support Occupy Wall Street and has some interesting
ideas, such as: Aside from easing the job
search for unemployed Americans with a centralized website, Karger would also
like to see tax credits given to those who need to relocate to find a job. – The
Daily Caller
Barack Obama –
Microsoft
Corp. - $170,000
Comcast
– 116,000
Harvard
– 94,000
Google
Inc. – $90,000
Time
Warner - $60,000
Bank
of America
(Barack
Obama has 16.3% incomplete or non disclosure.)
… He signed
Dodd – Frank.
Ron Paul –
Mason
Capital Management - $14,000
Microsoft
Corp. - $13,000
Boeing
Co. - $10,000
Google
Inc. - $10,000
Lockheed
Martin – $9,000
IBM
Corp. - $8,000
AT&T
Inc. – $7,000
Intel
Corp - $6,000
Federal
Express Corp - $6,000
(Ron
Paul has 16.3% incomplete or non disclosure.)
Rick Perry –
Ryan
LLC - $197,000
USAA
- $51,000
Contran
Corp - $50,000
Ernst
& Young - $45,000
JPMorgan
Chase & Co. - $27,000
!
Morgan Stanley – $20,000
(Rick Perry
has 24.4% incomplete or non disclosure.)
With Jon
Huntsman’s recent economic speech, virtually all the Republican candidates for
President—Romney, Bachmann, Huntsman, and Gingrich—have said they’re for repeal
of the Dodd-Frank Act. (Rick Perry
hasn’t said that specifically, but, in a book published in 2010, he suggested
that the act was unconstitutional). – The
American
Buddy Roemer –
N/A
“Candidate Buddy Roemer says Wall Street actually wrote the Dodd-Frank bill.
He's also called for reinstating Glass-Steagall.” – Conway Daily Sun
Mitt Romney –
!
Goldman Sachs – $354,000
Credit
Suisse Group - $195,000
! Morgan
Stanley - $185,000
HIG Capital
- $176,000
Barclays -
$155,000
! Bank of America
PriceWaterHouse
Coopers – $118,000
! JPMorgan Chase & Co – 109,000
Bain Capital
- $69,000
! Wells Fargo
! Citigroup
– 56,000
(Mitt Romney
has 11.6% incomplete or non disclosure.)
“‘The
extent of regulation in the banking industry has become extraordinarily
burdensome following Dodd-Frank,’ Romney told a roundtable of 18 businessmen at
The Common Man Restaurant.” – Boston.com
Rick
Santorum –
Bluecross/Blueshield
of South Carolina
Universal
Health Services - $14,000
Kimber
Manufacturing - $12,000
Achristavest
- $10,000
(Rick
Santorum had 23.2% incomplete or non disclosure.)
“Santorum
has called
for reducing taxes, repealing Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley, and rolling back
regulations at the EPA, FDA, and NLRB.” – Reason.com
* Thanks to opensecret.org for all the numbers used on
this piece. The money figures were rounded down.
For Further Reading
1.
The 5 Best and 5 Worst Regulations in
Dodd-Frank
By KATHERINE REYNOLDS LEWIS, The Fiscal Times
July 19, 2011
2.
Is Dodd-Frank Overdue or Overkill? 2 Dueling
Views
By BEN PROTESS
August 3, 2011, 4:20 pm
3.
Dodd – Frank
By Wikipedia
There it is
- a rather long and interesting piece on Dodd – Frank with an interesting look
at money in politics thrown in. I hope this has been both informing and
entertaining.
- Alexander Fisher
@JAFThrasher
J.Fisher2028@yahoo.com
http://www.facebook.com/alexander.thrasher
http://www.longhairedpoet.blogspot.com
"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."
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