No Time for Consumer Power

Ralph Nader @ Common Dreams - In the end, late on Thursday's Senate passage of the financial regulation bill, the Senate had no time for independent, non-government consumer power. In the end, after listening to swarms of corporate bank, brokerage, hedge fund, private equity, and insurance lobbyists, the Senate had no time for Senator Chuck Schumer's amendment to create a non-profit Financial Consumers Association (FCA, SA 3772).

In the end, this massive 1500 page bill shifted very little power directly to shareholders and consumers of financial services (meaning just about everyone) either to better use the courts and to organize nationwide to counteract the lobbying muscle of the financial goliaths ready to turn the new regulators into procrastinatory pu

After all, the criminal, reckless, self-enriching collapse of the economy by the Wall Streeters-the millions of lost jobs, the trillions of dollars in lost pensions and savings-Main Streeters deserved some reciprocal gesture for all the Americans who were forced, as taxpayers, savers and workers to bailout the crooks and ultimately pay the costs of this financial disaster.

In the end, the Senate, like the House of Representatives, told their consumers-their voters-to get lost. There was no room for a Financial Consumers Association in the 1500 pages. Read more.