Three days after U.S. lawmakers completed negotiations on the financial-overhaul bill last month, Rahm Emanuel called an emergency meeting of top administration officials in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
The deal was unraveling as three Senate Republicans whose votes were needed for passage were balking at a $19 billion bank fee. Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, needed a new way to help pay for the legislation. Among the options offered by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: wind down the bank-bailout fund Congress set up in 2008, to save billions of dollars and end a program unpopular with voters.
“I don’t want to hear anything else,” Emanuel said, according to people in the room. “That’s it. Just do it.”
The finance bill, which Obama is scheduled to sign July 21, benefited from key elements lacking in the yearlong health-care debate.
The deal was unraveling as three Senate Republicans whose votes were needed for passage were balking at a $19 billion bank fee. Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, needed a new way to help pay for the legislation. Among the options offered by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: wind down the bank-bailout fund Congress set up in 2008, to save billions of dollars and end a program unpopular with voters.
“I don’t want to hear anything else,” Emanuel said, according to people in the room. “That’s it. Just do it.”
The finance bill, which Obama is scheduled to sign July 21, benefited from key elements lacking in the yearlong health-care debate.
Among them: A more active White House role, and two Democratic lawmakers with a combined 65 years in Congress who steered the bill through with little Republican backing.
The effort was also boosted by public anger, stoked at a crucial moment by a government lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., that overcame an industry lobbying blitz.
“Public opinion kicked big money’s ass,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, one of the two main legislative architects of the bill, along with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd.
Toughest Rules
As a result, the toughest set of market rules in seven decades will soon become law, with Senate passage yesterday of the legislation. The package is in response to an economic crisis that pushed the banking industry to the brink of collapse, froze credit markets, and led to $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts to firms such as Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and American International Group Inc.
Goldman Sachs yesterday agreed to pay $550 million and change its business practices to settle U.S. regulatory claims that it misled investors in collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages.
The legislation mirrors a plan Obama proposed in June 2009, based on a 90-page white paper drawn up by White House and Treasury officials. It creates a consumer financial protection bureau with independent authority to write and enforce rules for banks, sets up a council of regulators to police companies, and establishes a mechanism to wind down failing firms whose collapse would roil markets.
The effort was also boosted by public anger, stoked at a crucial moment by a government lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., that overcame an industry lobbying blitz.
“Public opinion kicked big money’s ass,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, one of the two main legislative architects of the bill, along with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd.
Toughest Rules
As a result, the toughest set of market rules in seven decades will soon become law, with Senate passage yesterday of the legislation. The package is in response to an economic crisis that pushed the banking industry to the brink of collapse, froze credit markets, and led to $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts to firms such as Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and American International Group Inc.
Goldman Sachs yesterday agreed to pay $550 million and change its business practices to settle U.S. regulatory claims that it misled investors in collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages.
The legislation mirrors a plan Obama proposed in June 2009, based on a 90-page white paper drawn up by White House and Treasury officials. It creates a consumer financial protection bureau with independent authority to write and enforce rules for banks, sets up a council of regulators to police companies, and establishes a mechanism to wind down failing firms whose collapse would roil markets.
continued ... read full report @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-15/wall-street-regulations-became-reality-with-emanuel-saying-just-do-it-.html
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