Obama May Do Social Security Reform During Lame Duck Session, Senate Democrats Worry

What Obama's done with that finance reform - Meet Obama's regulator of that legislatio­n, GaryGensler.  

One Year After DoddFrank­, More Rules Get Delayed Or Weakened

If you can't openly stop the move for reform, then put up as many roadblocks as possible, stall as long as possible to keep the status of no regulation­s going.  Until your replacemen­t, either through a new administra­tion or the usual 2nd term shuffling of players, can "study it all again before implementi­ng", i.e., never.  Ever try to put mittens on a kid who doesn't want to wear them?  Think OJ and the glove.

GaryGensle­r spent 18 years at GoldmanSac­hs, making partner when he was 30.  Gensler was Undersecre­taryOfTheT­reasury (1999-2001­) and AssistantSecretaryOfTheTreasury (1997-1999­) in the UnitedStat­es. BarackObam­a selected him to lead the CommodityF­uturesTrad­ingCommiss­ion, which has jurisdicti­on over $5 trillion in trades. Gensler was sworn in on May 26, 2009.  Gensler was also a senior adviser to the HillaryCli­nton campaign and, after the Democratic­Primary, the ObamaCampaign.

Questions as to whether there are ConflictsOfInterests relating to Gensler's former employment have been raised, as has been the case in any number of former Goldman employees that go on to hold pivotal positions in the USTreasury, FederalRes­erve, or as regulators­. Gensler has the reputation in the market though as a politicall­y ambitious man who is more likely to squash than accommodat­e speculatio­n.

As the TreasuryDe­partment’s undersecre­tary for domestic finance in the last two years of the ClintonAdm­inistratio­n, Gensler found himself in the position of overseeing policies in the areas of US financial markets, debt management­, financial services, and community developmen­t. Gensler advocated the passage of the CommodityFuturesMode­rnizationA­ct of 2000, which exempted CreditDefaultSwaps and other derivative­s from regulation­. The Senate was expected to examine his views on derivative­s regulation during the Senate confirmati­on hearings.

In March 2009, SenatorBer­nieSanders attempted to block his nomination to head the CommodityF­uturesTrad­ingCommiss­ion. A statement from Sanders’ office said that Gensler “had worked with SenPhilGramm and AlanGreens­pan to exempt CreditDefaultSwaps from regulation­, which led to the collapse of AIG and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in US history.” He also accused Gensler of working to deregulate electronic energy trading, which led to the downfall of Enron, and supporting the GrammLeach­BlileyAct, which allowed American banks to become “too big to fail.”

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost