Obama's Wall Street 'Refrom' Passes; Dow-Jones/NASDAQ Inexplicably Tumbles

Excellent news, America! Because in these trying and uncertain times that cry out for even more government interference in our day-to-day lives, our lawmakers have passed yet more legislation that...well...had to be passed so we could find out what was in it.

Now granted I haven't read all 2000 pages myself, so I can't give you a complete and informed opinion. But apparently neither can most senators or congressmen.

Think I'm exaggerating? This is what one of the bill's sponsors had to say not even a month ago.

"It's a great moment. I'm proud to have been here," said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."

If healthcare 'reform' was any indication, anybody who's paying the hell attention should run screaming the other direction from any legislative item with the 'reform' suffix that this Congress brings up.

Seems like 'reform' has now become a synonym for 'nationalization'.

Apparently, this bill- written by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT)- will try to prevent a number of problems that led up to the 2008 economic crisis, such as the lack of racial and gender quotas in the US financial industry or those pesky Midwestern farmers using derivatives as a hedge against declining crop or cattle prices.

Curiously, this 'reform' seems to overlook the two biggest problem children in the US financial system: the now de-listed Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. These two quasi-government lenders are in the hole anywhere from $160 billion to $1 trillion and counting and the government has shovelled more money at them then they had AIG or General Motors (who have at least started to repay their bailouts). Congressman Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee and was romantically involved with senior Fannie Mae executive Herb Moses, had resisted attempts to further regulate the lender under the Bush Administration.

The reaction from the markets the first full day of trading after this was passed was pretty telling. The DOW slid nearly 300 points (2.5%) on the day while the NASDAQ was down 70 (3.1%) on companies like GE, Google and Home Depot missing their earnings mark and a Reuters poll indicated that consumer confidence was at its lowest levels in nearly 52 weeks.

Monday's earning reports aren't expected to be any better, and even more problematic is that turd written by Dodd and Frank will still be the law of the land.