Senate Ends Debate On Financial Reg. Reform

To much tumult and shouting, the Dims' majority in the Senate won approval today to vote on a toothless, mostly symbolic bill the "regulates" the criminal, often fraudulent predations permitted to the Banksters in the course of normal bidness. The WaPo has the bare report, whic predictably makes it seem the outcome was 1) ever in doubt, or 2) not the objective of BOTH "parties" from the start.

I would say, as a general rule, the more effective proposed regulations are, the more those to be regulated will be exercised. The Banksters are NOT beside themselves with frustration over this bill. Below please find a checklist a "Futility Check-list": check out the final version of whatever they agree on and apply the following questions to determine if the 'reforms' are cosmetic or substantive.

1) Will it make the biggest most "systemically important" banks (read: systemically destructive) any smaller...

2) Will it reduce the economic danger from rampant, overleveraged trading activities...

3) Will it change the nature, transparency, size, complexity or usage of the most heinous derivatives...

4) Will it prevent the creation of new toxic assets...

5) Will it contain the risk to the shadow banking system from hedge funds...

6) Will it remove the conflicts of interest between banks that issue securities and rating agencies that rate them, and get paid a fee for doing so...

7) Will it contain systemic risk...

8) Will it wrest control of our economic future from the banks the Fed couldn't regulate over the past decade...

9) Will it constrain the Fed's future bailout operations...(and)

10) Will it prevent bank failures by separating speculative banking from deposit-insured commercial banking a la Glass Steagall, but instead contains plans for resolving them, after the fact.