There's a reason why Dodd is unpopular and this helps highlight part of the problem. He believes the reforms are too aggressive and that it will cause the entire reform - the watered down, easy going reform that nobody really likes - might collapse. Wall Street has complained about it but they complain if they don't get mega bonuses too. Tough. The GOP is less of a surprise since backing the bankers is what they do. This is the system that they spent years picking apart until we had the Great Recession. This failed system is what they want. The only person in the room yesterday that has credibility (beyond lobbyists) was Volker.
Mr. Volcker, who led the Fed from 1979 to 1987, used a vivid metaphor in calling for the establishment of a “resolution authority,” an idea that has attracted widespread bipartisan support.
“The idea is that, with procedural safeguards, a designated agency be provided authority to intervene and take control of a major financial institution on the brink of failure,” he testified.
“The mandate is to arrange an orderly liquidation or merger — in other words, euthanasia, not a rescue.”
But the bulk of his testimony focused on the proposed ban on proprietary trading — what President Obama has called the Volcker rule.
