The New York Times reports on 11th-hour industry efforts to gut financial reform:
Industry lobbyists — and sympathetic members of Congress — are pushing for provisions to undercut a central pillar of the legislation, known as the Volcker Rule, which would forbid banks from using their own money to make risky wagers on the market and would force them to sell off hedge funds and private equity units.
….The three main changes under consideration would be a carve-out to exclude asset management and insurance companies outright, an exemption that would allow banks to continue to invest in hedge funds and private equity firms, and a long delay that would give banks up to seven years to enact the changes.
Italics mine. That certainly makes sense. I mean, an insurance company mucking around in highly leveraged investments certainly could never cause any problems, could it?
