The Perino Challenge: ‘What Specific Regulation Did We Eliminate?’
The Perino Challenge: ‘What Specific Regulation Did We Eliminate?’
During a press briefing yesterday, White House press secretary Dana Perino was asked to explain the “accusation that the White House is to blame in some way, or the Bush administration policy is to blame in some way” for the current financial crisis.
Perino responded by issuing a challenge: “I would ask you to go back and look…what specific regulation did they want that we blocked? What specific regulation did we eliminate?”
The Wonk Room gladly took up the Perino challenge. Here are some of the specific regulations of the financial system that the Bush administration has eliminated:
- The Uptick Rule: In July 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated the “uptick rule,” which “made it hard for speculators to push the price of a stock down after betting it would fall.” As the Wonk Room noted yesterday, “since then, legions of short sellers have progressively hammered Wall Street, contributing greatly to the current stock market crisis.”
- The Net Capital Rule: In 2004, the SEC loosened the “net capital” rule, which required “that broker dealers limit their debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-to-1.” The five investment banks that qualified for an alternative rule - Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley - were allowed “to increase their debt-to-net capital ratios, sometimes, as in the case of Merrill Lynch, to as high as 40-to-1.”
- State Laws Against Predatory Lending: In 2003, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued regulations that exempted national banks from state laws against predatory lending. As Slate reported, “with the state laws nullified, national banks were free to engage in the sharp practices the states were hoping to stamp out.”
The Bush administration eliminated these “specific regulations,” contributing to the specific mess that the financial system is in today.
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Wasn’t one of the big selling points in dub’s original campaign that he was or would be the first president with a flipp’n MBA?!
From http://www.famoustexans.com/georgewbush.htm “..later attended Harvard and earned a Masters of Business Administration in 1975″
September 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pmSo who’s going to cram your research down Dana’s throat, not that it’d do any good. Somehow the DNA of politicians, policy wonks and Press Secs. get modified such that lying and obfuscating become natural.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pmOverriding state laws against predatory lending got Gov. Eliott Spitzer outed quickly. His piece in the Washington Post prompted some serious political payback from the Bushies.
The Repugnicant party found a VP candidate who likes to make her opponents suffer. Their presidential nominee is the poster boy for anger unmanaged.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:10 pmPerrino used a great propaganda technique, betting no reporter could name the rules and insinuating that because they couldn’t, they had changed none — the best lie factory is still the Bush propaganda machine.
Does anyone know who writes this sleight of hand lies for Perino?
Also, why McCain is getting hammered for his BS lies and Bush is getting the pass?
I suspect dollars and/or threats are still coming from the Bush lie artists..
September 19th, 2008 at 8:07 pmFriday evening on the “PBS News Hour”, David Brooks (”Shields & Brooks”) argued that “DE-regulation” wasn’t the cause of this mess, arguing instead that Stocks are among the “MOST regulated” as opposed to “Securities” (IIRC) which are hardly regulated at all and are doing great. To Brooks, “too much” regulation caused the mess on Wall Street this past week.
In addition, Brooks also said Bush has had “a FANTASTIC last three years, starting with the Surge”.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:54 pm