The article linked below discusses the fact that a couple of Republican House members who are pushing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to review whether the costs they expect to impose on derivatives trades will be too high when they implement new regulations this year. Now, while derivatives trading isn't the most easily understandable or exciting subject matter to talk about, it is an area of the financial markets that was responsible for some of the biggest disasters of the recent financial crisis. They contributed heavily to bringing down companies like Lehman Brothers and AIG. The Dodd-Frank law looked to address this fairly unregulated part of the market in order to avoid a repeat of this disastrous trading. Now, I have to ask, why would these house members (in addition to several Republican Senators) push so hard to leave this market unregulated? My guess is that if you look at campaign donations and lobbying dollars spent by the major investment banks (aka Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley), companies that make billions in derivatives trading, you will have your answer. This is a shame because this is a market that desperately needs some form of monitoring/regulation. We've already learned that it is suicidal to leave regulation up to the banks themselves, I just wish these lawmakers could look past the lobbying money to see this.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/14/us-financial-regulation-cftc-idUSTRE72D1MN20110314
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