June 11, 2010
Chairman Christopher Dodd
Chairman Barney Frank
Dear Senator/Representative:
We write on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, an unprecedented coalition of over 250 national, state and local groups who have come together to reform the financial industry. Members of our coalition include consumer, civil rights, investor, retiree, community, labor, religious and business groups as well as Nobel Prize-winning economists. We support strong derivatives regulation and oppose weakening amendments to the derivatives language passed by the Senate.
Reckless swaps and derivatives trading played a critical role in the financial crisis, turning the fallout from the crash of the domestic housing market into a global economic catastrophe. It is critically important to preserve the Senate bill’s stronger stance on derivatives. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz makes the case for the Senate derivatives chapter plainly, by stating, “If [Congress] fails to pass strict oversight of dangerous over-the-counter derivatives and swaps the U.S. economy will continue to be vulnerable to significant financial risk.”