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Money Morning Mailbag: Readers Eager For Effective Financial Regulation

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning -

The Money Morning mailbag continues to overflow with reader thoughts and concerns regarding financial reform – which is finally making slow progress in Washington. After three failed attempts to bring a financial regulation bill to the floor this week, the Senate on Wednesday finally agreed to start debate.

Following is a collection of this week’s Money Morning reader comments on our articles regarding reform, inspired also by more news from the Securities and Exchange Commission case against Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) as executives faced a Senate committee hearing.

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Heavy-Handed Politics Could Boost Bank Reform, Stock Prices and the Economy

By , Capital Wave Strategist, Money Morning • @WallStreet_II -

Defenders of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) say the civil fraud charges the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has levied against the investment-banking giant are without foundation, and are politically timed to push President Barack Obama's bank-reform agenda.

In his Cooper Union speech to Wall Street and the American public yesterday (Thursday), President Obama took pointed aim at opponents of his bank-reform agenda by stating: "Unless your products depend on bilking people, there's little to fear from these reforms." 

Whether or not the timing of the Goldman Sachs fraud case was politically motivated, or whether or not President Obama was referring to Goldman with his "bilking" comment, one thing is for sure: The president and his administration are taking the reform fight to the Street.

At stake in this fight is the future of our capital markets, the health of the U.S. economy and the direction of the U.S. stock market.

To see how the Obama bank-reform push could perpetuate the bull market, please read on...

To see how the Obama bank-reform push could perpetuate the bull market, please read on...

Senate's Plan for Financial Reform Promises Nothing But Political Gridlock

By , Capital Wave Strategist, Money Morning • @WallStreet_II -

U.S. senators Christopher Dodd, D-CT, and Bob Corker, R-TN, have fashioned a compromise on stalled banking regulation that straddles divisions over establishing a financial consumer protection agency and addresses unwinding too-big-to-fail firms.

The deal deftly divides lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate, as well as in the House of Representatives, which passed its plan for financial reform in December.

By engineering gridlock in the nation's capitol, lawmakers seem determined to stall any meaningful overhaul of financial-markets regulation. But rather than counting on backsliding into the status quo to grease the wheels of economic recovery, the overhang of unresolved and ineffectual legislation threatens long-term investor confidence and desperately needed public protections.

To read more about the deal's shortcomings, please continue below...

Senate's Proposal Calls for Fed to Increase Its Role in Consumer Protection

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning -

The Senate's journey to agreement on a financial reform bill could lead to consumer protection responsibilities remaining in the hands of the Federal Reserve.

After much back-and-forth among senators, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is proposing a consumer protection unit that will be housed in the Fed. Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, offered the idea as an alternative to Dodd's earlier proposal of creating a consumer protection division in the Treasury Department.

Dodd's revision aims to appeal more to Republicans than earlier proposals, in hopes the Senate can move forward with U.S. financial regulation overhaul. The proposal is expected to scale back the measures approved by the House of Representatives in December 2009.

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Banks Threatened as Washington Takes on Overdraft Fees

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning -

Charges related to overdrawn accounts this year may add up to $38.5 billion in revenue for banks following last year's $36.7 billion, according to data from research firm Moebs Services Inc. That's up from $28 billion collected in 2007, according to consulting firm Oliver Wyman Group. But sneaky and manipulative ways in which banks collect […]

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