The shift of the U.S. House of Representatives to Republican control is expected to give the GOP and Wall Street a fresh opportunity to reshape pending financial regulations.
Republicans will have oversight of the agencies whose task is to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, The New York Times reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will be working on more than 240 rules that govern items such as bank capital standards.
The House takeover and the GOP's strengthened position in the Senate will also give the party greater influence over the direction and independence of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Republicans say they will use the House Financial Services Committee to ensure that regulators such as the CFTC and the consumer protection bureau do not write rules for the banking industry that lawmakers consider overly restrictive, Bloomberg News reports.
Slower rule making or additional pressure on regulators could benefit companies such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., which lobbied against parts of the Dodd-Frank law and predicted it would hurt their financial results.
Democrats still control the Senate, and Republicans are unlikely to be able to fundamentally reshape or repeal the Dodd-Frank law or unwind the government's role in housing finance. But the Republican approach will mark a shift from Democratic policies.
MW,
FYI - Jeff Skilling is in his fourth year of a 24-year prison sentence and Tom DeLay is currently going through a trial in Austin. Not sure where you got your information that Skilling or DeLay "escaped prosecution," except to say that there is a lot of misinformation out there and you were likely mis-informed. If you want to educate yourself about Enron and the Enron-related prosecutions, then spend some time on Ungagged.net - The Other Side of the Enron Story. www.ungagged.net
Well Hooray ! The country has once again swung back the other way in a never ending and unproductive series of ocilations between Republicans and Democrats.. between those who place the interests of the Corporation over "We the People". Lets not forget some of the recent shining stars of the Republican party like Tom DeLay and Jeff Skilling and many others who have escaped prosecution, at least for the time being. Those are the hallmark of the new majority in DC. Now we will be subjected to another term or two of punishment of the American family in favor of those who absolutely need a Corporate Jet and don't think they should pay high taxes. There is nothing wrong with Capitalism as long as one has restraint..the institutions of higher learning in this country stopped teaching restraint long ago..their diplomas should read, Master of Science in Greed !
What is happening is the return of the Feudal State where the "Serfs" serve the master..at least until the next insurrection.