Top Derivatives Regulator: 'We Haven't Filled the Gaps'

Gary Gensler, the top regulator of the commodities markets, sees the U.S. financial system still vulnerable to the murky world of privately negotiated derivatives.

As chairman of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Gensler wants to comprehensively oversee the trading of these complex financial contracts for the first time.

While some forms of derivatives are traded on regulated exchanges, federal regulators including Gensler, who was appointed by President Obama in December, have almost no power over derivatives that are traded privately on the phone or electronically. This over-the-counter derivatives market, which internationally is valued at nearly $600 trillion, is blamed for compounding the current financial crisis.

For the full story click here:
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/10/top-derivatives-regulator-we-haven%E2...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Gensler
• Gary Gensler
• derivatives
• credit default swap
• financial crisis
• Barney Frank
• CFTC

[blkcola]

Bankruptcy for profit...

[bnfox]

bertly1 -amen!!

[bertly71]

Watch what they do not what they say.

[bnfox]

bertly1 - for sure.And yes - Obama talked of lobbyists not being in his administration while he herded them in through the service entrance - his trend seems to be to hire all the wolves to watch our henhouse.

[bertly71]

Too bad this revolving door is not limited to the financial sector of our government involvement. The go.betweens keep siphoning off money for those who those who it was intended for. I wish Obama would have kept his campaign promise to omit these people from his administration.

[bnfox]

debtruth1 - as you know, more regulation isn't necessarily the answer - just enforce what is there and close the loopholes the special interests always buy and exploit. And they can't back the derivatives with anything - then they may actually have to back the money supply with something, too!! I think it is telling that the industry can't just make old fashioned profits - they have to invent insane quixotic equations to boondoggle investors in increasingly preposterous ways.

[bnfox]

bertly1 - absolutely true and little to add to that other than the astonishing speed and audacity at which these players go back and forth between the so-called "private" sector and the so-called "public" sector - creating less and less distinction between the two. I used to wonder why millionaires and rich lawyers went into government and it's low pay...but then saw all the strings they can pull to enrich their own investments, the corruption, and the lucrative lobbying jobs they take later.

[bertly71]

Washington is too awash in financial market cash, lawyers, lobbyists, and former and future employees of the financial sector. The revolving door between federal employees and the financial sectors brings little confidence of real and honest change for the better. Without that confidence, the economy will never fully recover.

[debtruth1]

maybe what they need to do is get filings on all derivatives created to ensure that those derivatives ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING BEHIND THEM!!!! it's less about regulating, it's more about filings!!! bring it to the attention of the regulators on the onset.......if we need constant regulation, there is something corrupt in the system. stamp out greed!!! long live capitalsim!!!!!

[beancube2008]

Was Mosses Zionist?