On Tue, 18 May 2010, politco.com was quoted:
> <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37459.html>
>
> Dodd tries to gut derivatives bill
>
> By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 5/18/10 8:14 PM EDT
>
> With Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas fighting for her political life,
> Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) quietly introduced
> an amendment Tuesday gutting her plan to crack down on derivatives
> trading.
>
> trading most derivatives, the complex financial instruments that
> contributed to the 2008 economic crisis. But some Senate Democrats, as
> well as administration officials and Wall Street banks, have lined up
> against the restriction, saying it would put the trades out of the reach
> of regulators.
>
> Dodd's proposal, which aimed at resolving those differences, would delay
> implementation of the ban by two years while a federal council of
> regulators studied it -- a move that would likely prevent the
> prohibition from ever going into effect. He was required to submit the
> amendment by noon Tuesday for it to be considered ahead of final
> passage.
I hope this doesn't make me a tool, but aren't some swaps, like interest rate swaps, a reasonable tool of vanilla banking? Is it completely toolish to suggest that maybe we don't want to ban 100% of them? In which case, delaying to come up with an exact list of the exceptions doesn't sound terrible.
At right this moment, this bill right surpasses what I expected. So I can't quite follow how this guts it. Although granted my expectations were low.
Michael