{"id":526380,"date":"2010-04-13T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/economics\/2010\/04\/13\/geithner-pushes-lawmakers-on-financial-rules\/"},"modified":"2010-04-13T09:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T13:02:00","slug":"geithner-pushes-lawmakers-on-financial-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/526380","title":{"rendered":"Geithner Pushes Lawmakers on Financial Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted on Washington Wire<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Obama administration is intensifying its push on new financial rules, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner <\/strong> penned an editorial in the Washington Post<\/a> Tuesday to try and drive home his argument.<\/p>\n

Here are some quotes from the op-ed followed by Washwire analysis in parentheses:<\/p>\n

1. \u0093America is close to turning the page on this economic crisis\u0085It is simply unacceptable to walk away from this recession without fixing the system’s basic flaws that helped to create it.\u0094 (Geithner is saying fixes must be made before everyone forgets about what happened).<\/p>\n

2. \u0093Signs of bipartisan support for action seem to be emerging in Washington, including for an independent consumer financial-protection agency.\u0094 (Many Republicans would question whether \u0093bipartisan support\u0094 is in fact emerging, but its clear Democrats think they have splintered the Republicans. Unclear if this passage is meant as a poke in the eye to Republicans or as a clear indication that the White House has this bill right where it wants it — or both.)<\/p>\n

3. \u0093The best way to protect American families who take out a mortgage or a car loan or who save to put their kids through college is through an independent, accountable agency that can set and enforce clear rules of the road across the financial marketplace.\u0094 (This is important, as there\u0092s a clash over whether auto loans should be covered by the new consumer-protection rules. Here Geithner is saying they will absolutely be covered. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback <\/strong> of Kansas is working on an amendment to carve them out, so expect a fight on that).<\/p>\n

4. \u0093Major global financial institutions — whether they look like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or AIG — will be required to operate with less leverage and less risk-taking.\u0094 (This is Geithner trying to counter a criticism from some lawmakers that the bill won\u0092t stop banks from becoming too big to fail. He\u0092s essentially saying, \u0093No more bad old days,\u0094 and he\u0092s including a swath of U.S. companies to ensure folks that no one will be immune.)<\/p>\n

5. \u0093Transparency will lower costs for users of derivatives, such as industrial or agriculture companies, allowing them to more effectively manage their risk. It will enable regulators to more effectively monitor risks of all significant derivatives players and financial institutions, and prevent fraud, manipulation and abuse. And by bringing standardized derivatives into central clearing houses and trading facilities, the Senate bill would reduce the risk that the derivatives market will again threaten the entire financial system.\u0094 (This is an important section of his editorial. Many U.S. companies argue that the White House\u0092s plan to regulate derivatives will cost them money and could end up forcing them to cut jobs. Geithner is saying the transparency will help industrial and agricultural companies manage risk. What he doesn\u0092t do, though, is define who these \u0093significant derivatives player\u0094 are that will be subject to tougher standards).<\/p>\n

6. \u0093The best strategy for stability is to force the financial system to operate with clear rules that set unambiguous limits on leverage and risk. We need that to happen here and around the world. Importantly, with the Senate bill, the United States would have a strong hand in negotiating a global agreement on new capital requirements by the end of the year. Such an agreement would establish a level playing field with minimum requirements for capital, and compliance would be open to scrutiny by regulators and the markets.\u0094 (Geithner is putting his cards on the table here. He\u0092s essentially saying, \u0093If we want to be taken seriously by our foreign counterparts — who, incidentally, are all here in Washington today — we need to get this done.\u0094 This will give Geithner more leverage — pardon the pun \u0096 to negotiate with other countries about how their banks should be regulated.)<\/p>\n

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Originally posted on Washington Wire. The Obama administration is intensifying its push on new financial rules, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner penned an editorial in the Washington Post Tuesday to try and drive home his argument. Here are some quotes from the op-ed followed by Washwire analysis in parentheses: 1. \u0093America is close to turning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}