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Macros, on 24 August 2017 - 09:15 PM, said:
but I mean this level of lobbying to deregulate and effectively put millions in Lether level of debt, surely there had to be some senators standing up and saying "fuck this!" and bringing it to the public eye??
Bear in mind this is the political system that deregulated, refused to even consider there was a problem, and failed to implement meaningful, permanent regulations after the fact, on Wall St, before, during, and after the GFC.
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve was ideologically opposed to regulation. The Chairman of a regulatory body for the nation's banking. Was ideologically opposed to regulation. Senators, Congress, the Federal Reserve, and more all ignored, downplayed, and actively removed barriers to the GFC. To the point where they wrote a letter questioning the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate derivatives. The CFTC was told to GTFO from a discussion about something that should have been, for all intents and purposes, perfectly, neatly, and unquestionably within its purview.
The same people told the IMF, as well as renowned economists from its ranks, that their fears were unfounded and hysterical. Like, two to three years before the penny dropped.
Just because something is obviously, blatantly, and severely bad for the people, does not mean the Senate or the House will stand on principle against it, nor does it mean that enough of them will do so to make a difference. Plus, you know, lobbying, promises of lucrative post-government positions on boards and such, people who own debt collection companies not considering it a conflict of interest to be involved in legislation that creates debt, robo-voting/ghost-voting, you know...all the fun stuff that makes America far less than what it could be. Boils down to money, and a lack of ethics in most cases.
