Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Paul Ryan: Banks Shouldn’t Trade Like Hedge Funds


From Bloomberg: We were as surprised as everyone to hear what U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told constituents at a meeting on May 4.

“If you’re a bank and you want to operate like some nonbank entity like a hedge fund, then don’t be a bank,” the House Budget Committee chairman and the Republicans’ leading policy wonk said. “Don’t let banks use their customers’ money to do anything other than traditional banking.”

We agree. Although Ryan didn’t say so, he was endorsing the Volcker rule in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Inspired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the rule is supposed to stop federally insured banks from making speculative bets for their own profit -- leaving taxpayers to bail them out when things go wrong.

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