Posted by Tina
The financial reform bill making its way through Congress contains a lot of regulation and the usual red tape. It will cost taxpayers more of their hard earned dollars both in terms of the expense of bigger government and in compliance costs passed along to consumers. It will add even more layers of busywork and contribute nothing to the already inept oversight bureaucracy. But more than anything else that’s offensive, this bill ensures ever greater power over personal information and our lives will be granted to government. If you thought government tapping phones, even if it was to defend the country, was a breach of civil liberties you’re really going to love having your banking and financial transactions monitored and recorded.
The next time you make a withdrawal from an automated teller machine, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner might be watching over your shoulder. Boosted by the sweeping, 1,400-page financial regulatory proposal currently making its way through the Senate, Mr. Geithner would have unprecedented, real-time access to a wealth of personal and corporate financial data – all in the name of protecting the public. ** The legislation, sponsored by Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, would create the innocuously named Office of Financial Research as a central repository for transaction-related records held by financial companies. According to proponents, “decision-makers” like Mr. Geithner need up-to-the-minute information to act in order to prevent what they refer to as another Wall Street meltdown. The proposed agency would also provide statistical analysis and research, purportedly to monitor systemic risk to the financial system.
What other powers will “The Office of Financial Research” have? Read on:
* Mr. Dodd’s legislation would grant the agency director the coercive power of subpoena to obtain records and rulemaking authority to force private-sector firms to maintain their internal financial records in a format acceptable to the government.
* Grants sweeping authority to maintain a data center.
* The law sets up a semi-independent organization giving the agency director the power to set his own budget by imposing taxes on large financial firms without consulting any elected officials.
* Salaries would be in excess of $200,000 a year for as many bureaucrats as the director sees fit to hire.
* Bureaucrats would be allowed to exploit their knowledge of market conditions as private-sector consultants one year after leaving the agency.
Since the bill is 1400 pages long you know it has to contain more that is troubling for those who value privacy and property concerns. It must be defeated if not now then in November.