Senate

Barney’s Good Day

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | June 25, 2010 | +

As Adam notes, early this morning negotiators wrapped up work on the most sweeping overhaul of the rules that govern Wall Street in a generation. While the conference didn’t make for must see TV, conference chairman Barney Frank did provide a certain amount of comedy relief with his biting set-downs of the opposition. A look at Frank’s success. The bill is now expected to pass both chambers next week and head to the President’s desk to be signed into law before Independence Day.

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Related Topics: barney frank, financial regulatory reform, Congress, Democratic Party, Economy, Republican Party, Senate, White House

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  • nflfoghorn

    On top of that, he’s gonna catch “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” all weekend.

  • deconstructiva

    Thanks, Jey. Per your tweet yesterday, is the internet back up at 100% at work or did you have to feed your post into your Blackberry? If you / team are already at a bar working (and eating breakfast foods, wings, doing shots, etc.) just in case, will you start a drinking game based on Barney Frank / gay jokes to be written here? I hope you can sneak in a trip down to Haiti for followup coverage on rebuilding efforts / not.
    .
    Actually, with the sleep-inducing agony huge volume of details covered in Finace Reform™ hearings, do you see obvious loopholes / end-arounds that traders / lawyers will find that need either legislative tweaking or resolved in court? (I asked Stephen Gandel at Cur. Cap. blog but would like your thoughts given your closer – and excellent – coverage. Thanks, Jay.)

  • deconstructiva

    Sorry nfl, re: #2. My snide remark about commenters making gay jokes was really aimed at freepa and rusty, et al. The page doesn’t update while typing so I didn’t see your comment. And sorry Jay for misspelling your name up front, next time I use Word / spell check (at least the gender is intact: I remember a WSJ blogger last year-ish screwing up big-ass time NOT knowing you’re a woman).

  • nflfoghorn

    No big. Equal-opp offender!

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    the needed 60-vote majority in the Senate.
    -
    They need to overcome a GOP filibuster of reform. Remember, the GOP filibusters at a rate unprecedented in the history of the republic. It’s a big deal! But they didn’t change the number of senators.
    -
    I think that this article may have been more useful to your readers if there had been a little more discussion of the plusses and minuses of the Volker Rule and the proposal on non-investment-grade derivatives.
    -
    I mean, it’s nice that Barney had a good day, but do economists with a record of accurate predictions and explanations over the past decade-plus think that this is a good law, or a bad one? Why?

  • m0mentom0ri

    “Sorry nfl, re: #2. My snide remark about commenters making gay jokes was really aimed at freepa and rusty, et al.”
    .
    So its only wrong when the right-wingers do it?
    .
    “No big. Equal-opp offender!”
    .
    Why is it I only hear that excuse when its gay jokes?

  • xxception

    Banks have basically 2 ways of making a profit. They invest the money under their control and they charge fees for their services. Now that they will be severely limited in how they can invest, expect the fees to go up severely. I’m sure it will be called an unintended consequence, but you really have to lack logic and forethought not to see this one coming.
    Also, this is the same man that protected Fannie and Freddie at all cost and is resisting efforts to reform them. Yet, Fannie and Freddie share plenty of blame for the current financial and housing mess we find ourselves in. Interesting.

  • Alex Vallas

    If the obstructionist team of McConnell, Boehner and Cantor attempt to defeat this bill it would give the Dems a great advantage which should be highly publicized. For those of us who lost huge amounts of our retirement annuities because of lack of oversight of the financial markets the changes are welcome. While we will probably never recover the losses which were the result of greedy Wall Street financial institutions and banks we can take some comfort in the bill. Sadly, many lost jobs and homes while some on Wall Street made tens of millions through legal but unethical actions.
    No doubt the banks will still make hefty profits. They give you around 2% on your savings while charging upwards of 26% on your credit cards. In this instance, Americans are at fault for charging beyond their means to pay. Almost all Europeans pay off the cards entirely or purchase prepaid credit cards.

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