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(6) the 2000 Commodities Futures Modernization Act. It's so bad, it was tucked away in an appropriations bill near the end of Clinton's tenure. It was his final public betrayal, and what a whopper to endorse.
It legitimized "swap agreements" and other "hybrid instruments" at the core of today's problems. It prevented regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging. It made Wall Street a casino operating on only the house wins rules.
Among other provisions, it contained the "Enron Loophole." Enron Online became the first Internet-based commodities transaction system. It rescinded regulations in place since 1922.
Derivative scams went wild. Enron fleeced investors and energy purchasers with impunity until its house of cards collapsed.
Alan Greenspan endorsed derivatives at the time. He lied calling them a way to share risks. They turned an economic downturn into the greatest Depression for most households. They're either impoverished, bordering on it, or heading for it before decade's end. A Clinton-Greenspan combo made it possible.
Black could have listed many more legislative and deregulatory public betrayal examples, including Obama's so-called financial reform only bankers could love. They should. They wrote it. It assures business as usual codified into law under a reform mantle.
Black moved on to the 2012 JOBS Act. He called it "the product of a feeding frenzy by lobbyists who are finally able to enact every fraud-friendly provision they ever dreamed of making law. The only kind of financial bill that can pass with overwhelming support is an anti-regulatory" one.
The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate) companies are their largest contributors. Whatever they want, they get. Through the ages, greasing palms worked like charms. In large enough amounts, they always work.
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