Yes, it is shocking, unbelievable and horrific all rolled into one. Congress is controlled by the onslaught of money, especially from those that have so much of it, the banks. O.K. so it has been going on for decades (and a couple of centuries) and it really isn't news. The only difference as of late is how much more influence banks have and the lengths they go to satisfy their greed. With more than eighteen years in Congress, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) knows what is going on, and has vowed to do something about it.
From RawStory:
“The banks run the place,” Peterson told the New York Times in Monday’s editions. “I will tell you what the problem is — they give three times more money than the next biggest group. It’s huge the amount of money they put into politics.”
Peterson has introduced a bill to regulate derivatives trading — the pesky financial instruments that nearly brought down the US financial system. Derivatives involve writing insurance on various complex financial transactions, such as providing insurance to investors in the event of massive defaults on home mortgages.
But he says that Republicans have watered down his bill. He wants derivatives trading to take place on public exchanges — much like the New York Stock Exchange — rather than through private clearinghouses, which are managed by banks.
So in the end, nothing much is going to come from this. It was a good idea, but there were simply too many competing interests and the Republicans (and probably some conservative Dems) that tinkered with the bill so it does next to nothing.
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