New gigantic bill coming to your town

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062500675_pf.html

Executive summary:

House and Senate leaders have reached agreements on a gigantic new bill that would completely change the financial system. No Republican voted for the bill in committee.

Some of the new powers granted by the bill:
"A new consumer protection bureau housed in the Federal Reserve would have independent funding, an independent leader and near-total autonomy to write and enforce rules. The government would have broad new powers to seize and wind down large, failing financial firms and to oversee the $600 trillion derivatives market. In addition, a council of regulators, headed by the Treasury secretary, would monitor the financial landscape for potential systemic risks."

Some legislators wanted to completely prohibit banks from engaging in most "risky" investments. Most of those amendments failed, but these abilities will be curtailed to some extent.

Opinion:
I will not call this the financial "reform" bill, as "reform" implies improvement. There is little to point to as improvement, since huge problems like the insolvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not dealt with. This is another bill (like the healthcare act last March) that is too large for anyone to read or fully understand before Congress will vote on it and make it the law of the land (perhaps as early as July 4th). It grants sweeping new powers to many unelected officials and bureaucrats. If this trend continues, why bother having a Congress to write new laws at all in the future when you can have unelected people do it?

It is appropriate that it is named the Dodd-Frank bill, after the two legislators that had the largest government role in creating the economic mess we are in. Will Dodd will get another personal mortgage deal somewhere in this legislation?

Update: this bill may be stalled by, of all things, the death of Senator Robert Byrd. Let's hope so.

Update 2: Uh-oh. It passed the House. The Senate has said it is "not ready" to vote on it---yet.