If Bloomberg is right, the best thing you can do with all of the articles and analyses you’re going to see tomorrow regarding the new financial regulatory scheme is bookmark them for reference next year.
With health care and climate control on their plates, it’s unlikely that any regulatory bill will emerge this year. Indeed, as the negotiations over those two issues heats up it’s not unreasonable to think that regulation might not get a hearing at all.
Complicating the picture is the fact that whatever public pressure may have existed for reform, has now pretty much dissipated as the crisis is perceived to have ebbed. Yeah, this blog and all the others bloviate about it but in reality, the general public got glassy-eyed when things were in crisis, and frankly it isn’t at the top of their agendas. They feel like they have a lot of other things to worry about. So, no votes to be gained, no rush on the part of Congress. It’s a simple equation.
The delay will most likely also result in a bill that’s even limper than the one Obama plans to propose. His is breathtaking in its conservatism and will be the base from which the banking lobby negotiates down. It should be pretty obvious by now that even though this crisis took them to the edge, their lobbying power is hardly diminished at all. Next year is an election year and the money the politicians need is going to buy a lot more trimming of any new regulations.
So, don’t let whatever you see or read tomorrow morning push up your blood pressure. It’s an opening shot in a battle that’s not even going to be joined for a long time. Actually, the war is probably over before it starts. The stuff you’ll see is just for show.
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