Regulating Derivatives

The House Financial Services Committee just approved an amendment mandating that derivatives traded between financial institutions must be traded on an exchange.

That would mean the pricing would be public and the counterparties clear, something that manifestly didn't happen when we all woke up one day to learn that the American economy rested atop a bunch of derivatives that AIG had sold to unknown parties at unclear prices and could only be saved by handing the company an unlimited subsidy. This was one of the tougher lifts for the financial regulatory reform in the House, and it's good to see that Barney Frank managed to clear it.

By Ezra Klein  |  October 15, 2009; 11:29 AM ET
Categories:  Financial Regulation , Solutions Share This:  E-Mail | Technorati | Del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble Previous: Post Chat
Next: Olympia Snowe Vs. Ben Nelson

Comments

"This was one of the tougher lifts for the financial regulatory reform in the House, and it's good to see that Barney Frank managed to clear it."

Is that Barnie "Fannie is a sound investment" Frank?

Posted by: kingstu01 | October 15, 2009 12:02 PM | Report abuse

So how long before Morgan, Goldman and the rest open manufacturing subsidiaries to trade their derivatives for them? (They wouldn't have to start from scratch; they could just buy any of the major manufacturing companies in the US out of petty cash...)

Posted by: paul314 | October 15, 2009 12:34 PM | Report abuse

Sorry to be cynical but I believe this whole charade is just a shakedown of Wall Street lobbyists by the HFSC.

Posted by: bmull | October 15, 2009 12:39 PM | Report abuse

Post a Comment

We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.

User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.



 
 
RSS Feed
Subscribe to The Post

© 2009 The Washington Post Company