Today, Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to President Obama and Secretary Geithner requesting that they “urge the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to examine a small levy on financial speculation as a revenue-raising measure.”

The Institute for College Access & Success and Americans for Financial Reform hosted a conference call with reporters and bloggers Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 12:00 PM EDT to discuss private student loan debt and what the impact of delaying the confirmation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director means for students and families. Listen to the replay.

“Irresponsible deregulation of the financial industry – and the conduct it made possible – was a root cause of the financial crisis that has cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in home equity and retirement savings. The ‘Regulatory Accountability Act’ would further stack the deck towards Wall Street special interests, and make it impossible to put in place the common sense rules we need to demand transparency and accountability in financial markets, and prevent the financial industry from repeating the extraordinarily reckless practices for which most of us are paying so high a price.”

“Wall Street driven excessive speculation in commodities market has increased prices – and price volatility – for everyday commodities including oil and food. It is costing US consumers hundreds of billions of dollars, driving up costs and uncertainty for producers, holding back economic recovery, and causing increased hunger and privation in the poorest parts of the world.”

Today’s House Agriculture committee hearing is a loophole festival for the big swaps dealers. The Committee is considering seven different pieces of legislation. Almost every one of them would carve a significant loophole in the new derivatives protections created by the Dodd Frank Act.

“The Volcker Rule, with its clear ban on both proprietary trading and conflicts of interest, is one of the short list of places where the Dodd-Frank Act imposes an outright ban on Wall Street practices central to the financial crisis. Unfortunately, the proposal issued today falls well short of what the Volcker Rule could and should achieve. It is too weighted toward preserving bank freedom of action, rather than creating the changes in bank practice and culture required by the statute,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “We strongly urge major improvements in the final rule. The serious and widespread economic pain caused by the failures of our financial system, and the growing expressions of public outrage – with more and more people taking to the streets –help make it clear how important it is to get this right,” she added.