House Votes For New Financial Regulations

I was beginning to wonder if Congress would ever get around to putting some badly needed regulations on the financial industry. It took them nearly a year, but the House of Representatives has finally passed some new regulations on a 223-202 vote. Here are some of the changes in the House bill:

* Creation of a new agency to protect consumers from unfair practices.

* Gave the government broad power to dismantle large firms that pose a risk to the economy.

* Outlaws many predatory and abusive loan practices.

* Imposed new restrictions on financial derivatives.

* Gave shareholders the right to hold non-binding votes on executive pay.

* Somewhat reined in the power of the Federal Reserve.

Of course the devil is in the details, but generally all of those changes needed to be made. We have seen what the Republican deregulation of the financial industry did to our economy, and it was not pretty. It will still be a while before our economy can recover from it.

But before these changes can become law, they must also be approved by the Senate. That's where things could really get ugly -- especially if the blue dogs join with Republicans to protect the financial giants from any new regulation. I hope they don't savage this bill like they have health care reform, but I expect they will. We'll probably be lucky to get any new regulations out of the Senate.

Naturally, the Republicans are screaming that the bill will be the death of capitalism. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said, "It's about the difference between a free-enterprise economy and a managed and controlled economy."

He may be right, but we have seen where his free-enterprise economy leads us -- to consumer rip-offs and a seriously damaged economy. It is obvious to any rational person that some controls must be put on the financial industry, or we're left with nothing but naked uncontrolled greed.

I agree with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) when he said, "The Republican position is: business knows best. Do not have any rules, do not prevent...any of the irresponsible, reckless, over-leveraging that happened and led to the crises."

I urge the Senate to pass this bill. Add more regulations if you want, but don't eliminate any of the regulations in the House bill. America's future economic health depends on it.