NYTimes: The bill seeks to curb abusive lending, particularly in the mortgage industry, and to ensure that troubled companies, no matter how big or complex, can be liquidated at no cost to taxpayers. And it would create a “financial stability oversight council” to coordinate efforts to identify risks to the financial system. It would also establish new rules on the trading of derivatives and require hedge funds and most other private equity companies to register for regulation with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The bill would have been better if the Brown-Kaufman amendment had passed. Even without that, it is still the biggest financial regulatory package since the Great Depression.
Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold voted against the measure because they didn't feel it went far enough. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (both of Maine) and Scott Brown (R-MA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) voted for it. Grassley is up for re-election this year, and is facing a more spirited challenge than he thought.
Big whoop. Even the cheerleaders over at Talking Points Memo couldn't get very excited over this one.
Posted by: Hypatia | May 26, 2010 at 11:11 AM