I was among those raving about the passage of the financial reform bill. And now I am just raving.
"Unbelievable," said one advocate who hoped for the best but expected the worst. He was amazed it even passed. The wise men in the media immediately began making comparisons with the New Deal. The pundits praised the President and the fact that a handful of Republicans did not just say no this time.
Somehow, even the most hard-headed among us realized that something had to be done to bring Wall Street in line if only because the mood in the country on this issue is practically insurrectionary.
You would think as this big 1500-page "reform" went through -- anyone want to bet if its strongest provisions will survive the reconciliation process? -- the banks would be quaking in their boots. After all, they funded what President Obama called "swarms" of lobbyists to kill it at birth. They denounced it with doomsday language with their rhetoric helping to drive the market down. Oh the fear! Oh, the consequences!
But then, what happened? Were bankers jumping out of windows like their predecessors had when the market crashed in '29? No way.
WSNS reported what happened: "Bank stocks soared on Friday, with the share price of JP Morgan Chase, one of the biggest finance houses, surging 5.9 percent and helping drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 125 points. Other bank stocks rose sharply: Bank of America up 4.7 percent, Goldman Sachs up 3.3 percent, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. The S&P financial sector index was up 3.6 percent overall."
The Wall Street Journal reported the rise in prices under the headline "Financial Stocks Turn Higher After Senate Passes Reform Bill."
rest at http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/3222
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