financial regulation bill

It is not everyday that I congratulate congress for a job well done. Today, I will congress credit where credit is due. It is beyond obvious that we needed a financial regulation bill. Well, today congress passed a regulation bill with several things that I like. Being the uber politics nerd, I decided to read the bill and choose which bits I found to be interesting:

A) From December to early March of this year, I worked for a credit card processing company. I know that the whole processing industry is a giant scam. Businesses have to pay somewhere between 0-6-7% on all their profits to the credit card companies and additional fees to the processing company. This hurts small businesses and big businesses. Most European countries charge about 0.2%. In America, sometimes up to 7% of a purchase is lost in fees. Although, congress hasn't put a number on it, insiders are estimating that they are going to cap the fees to 0.5%. Sorry Visa and Mastercard. In addition, now businesses will be offered a discount if customers pay with cash or check instead of plastic. This was not allowed before.

B) Basically a bank will not get to be "too big to fail" anymore. First if a bank defaults, they have to begin selling off their assets and begin repaying their debts. Two, and most importantly, executives will no longer let their company fail. If you are a senior executive, and your bank fails, the government will have the right to pay back your debts by going after your salary and bonuses from the past two years!! Third, those executives will be permanently banned from working in the financial sector.

C) Every American will be allowed to look at their credit score for free once a year through www.annualcreditreport.com.

D) I truly believe that only like ten people in the world know why oil is priced the way it is. It is not just simple side economics. Instead, it is a handful of elite derivatives traders that decide what prices will be. Well, in this new law, trading of natural resources will be much more transparent.

E) There will be a new sub-branch of the SEC (Securities Exchange Committee) called the Office of Financial Literacy. There whole goal will be to teach Americans more about things like Roth IRAs, 401ks, liens, fees, et cetera. The whole financial industry is WAY too confusing. Hopefully this group proves beneficial.

To be honest there was a lot more stuff that was either above my head, or I found completely uninteresting. Bottom line, there is going to be a lot more financial regulation. Hopefully there won't be any more of these Citibanks, AIG's, Bear Stearns, and other companies hurting our economy.

1. Did you read Rush Limbaugh's latest gem? On Tuesday, referring to the late George Steinbrenner, "That cracker made a lot of African-Americans millionaires... He fired a bunch of white guy managers left and right." I am not going to pretend to be outraged. My favorite part is the fake outrage by the NAACP, and the Al Sharpton's of the world. Oh, Rush... you never cease to entertain me.

2. Currently listening to "move your feet" by Junior Senior.