“The U.S. House Financial Services Committee approved legislation that would let banks keep commodity and equity derivatives in federally-insured units by removing part of the Dodd-Frank Act’s so-called push-out rule. …Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition including the AFL-CIO labor federation as well as other unions and consumer advocacy groups, opposed changes to the push-out rule in a letter before the vote.”
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – February 11, 2012 – February 17, 2012.
AFR sent the following letter to House Financial Services Committee members, expressing concerns about three proposed bills that would undermine transparency and accountability in the financial system.
The so-called Volcker Rule has broken the record for attracting the most comment letters submitted on any Dodd-Frank proposal. Regulators have received a whopping 17,000-plus comments on the proposal, a Federal Reserve spokeswoman said. …Behind this deluge is a partnership of two consumer advocacy groups that have been active in pushing back against the banks during the Dodd-Frank rule-writing process. Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform used email lists and social media such as Twitter and Facebook to recruit members and others to submit comments on the Volcker Rule.
“What does Goldman Sachs have in common with Red Lobster and Macy’s? They all loathe the Volcker Rule. …An array of supporters of the proposed rule, including Mr. Volcker himself, pushed back against the escalating rhetoric. ‘This criticism is deeply misguided,’ Americans for Financial Reform, a nonprofit group that favors Wall Street regulation, said in a comment letter. The group said that too much of a good thing, or ‘excessive market liquidity,’ drove the financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008.”
Support for a Wall Street Speculation Tax has been spreading across the nation with more grassroots groups calling for a tax on reckless Wall Street speculation than ever before. To move forward on winning this policy change, we need members of Congress to step up and support Wall Street speculation taxes. Write your Senators and Representatives and ask them to support a Wall Street Speculation tax.
AFR sent a letter to the Senate, expressing concerns about a raft of bills that are harmful to economic and job growth.
“This public support for Volcker is the outgrowth of a letter-writing campaign by Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and other advocacy groups that have lobbied to defend and strengthen Dodd-Frank. Since Dodd-Frank was passed, regulators have invited the public to weigh in on the new rules before turning the blueprints into final law.”
Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and Occupy the SEC hosted a conference call with reporters and bloggers Tuesday, February 14th at 2:00 PM EST to discuss the importance of the “Volcker Rule” and calling on the regulators to draft an effective final rule, and to resist industry’s efforts to defend a status quo that serves Wall Street special interests and puts the public at risk.
“The controversial Volcker rule that regulates proprietary trading came in for a final round of comment as frustrated bankers, anti-Wall Street activists and Paul Volcker himself flooded government regulators with last-minute statements before the deadline Monday at midnight. …Backing up Volcker were a number of Democrat senators as well as a coalition group comprising Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and Occupy the SEC, a sub-group associated with New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement.”