Quotable: Sen. Ted Kaufman

"After a crisis of this magnitude, it amazes me that some of our reform proposals effectively maintain the status quo in so many critical areas, whether it is allowing multi-trillion-dollar financial conglomerates that house traditional banking and speculative activities to continue to exist and pose threats to our financial system, permitting banks to continue to determine their own capital standards, or allowing a significant portion of the derivatives market to remain opaque and lightly regulated."

Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Delaware, March 11, 2010

Loopholes and Lumps of Coal

While the financial industry got a stocking stuffer, we got stiffed.

House Democrats passed something they called reform and handed  it over to the Senate.

But the bill is laden with loopholes, put there by Blue Dogs and New Democrats doing the bidding of the financial institutions.

Democratic leaders, from President Obama to Rep. Barney Frank have demonstrated that they are at best ineffectual in spearheading efforts to win real reform that puts consumers and taxpayers’ interests first. At worst, they're undermining those efforts.

The resilience shown by the financial industry in blunting efforts at sensible regulation has been nothing short of breathtaking.

Despite these setbacks, the battle may not be lost.

Heads banks win, tails taxpayers lose

Remember when high risk and reckless trading led to economic collapse?

That was so five minutes ago.

Goldman-Sachs is back to its old tricks, roaring to record profits from high-risk trading - and the federal government is aiding and abetting the whole thing.

You might have thought the feds would be discouraging Goldman from using the economy as its private casino, but that’s far from the case.