94% of the $230 Trillion Credit Derivative Market Is Held by Just Four Banks - I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists
Regarding the Commodities Futures Modernization Act which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000; there is a nasty little piece of history regarding that bill. Senator Gramm (R-TX) was the head of the Senate Banking Committee who pushed through this bill in the Senate. This bill completely deregulated futures trading and had embedded in it verbiage now referred to as the Enron loophole. Interestingly enough - not only was Enron a major political contributor to Senator Gramm’s campaign … his wife Wendy Gramm was a board member. I am not kidding.
The NY Times explains that HERE:
he commodity futures act, in addition to allowing unregulated trading of financial derivatives, included language advocated by Enron that largely exempted the company from regulation of its energy trading on electronic commodity markets, like its once-popular Enron Online. The provision came to be known as the Enron Loophole.
Enron was a major contributor to Mr. Gramm’s political campaigns, and Mr. Gramm’s wife, Wendy, served on the Enron board, which she joined after stepping down as chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Although not directly related to the current economic crisis, the Enron e-mail provides a window into how much clout Mr. Gramm had as chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and the ways lobbyists intervened to advance and defend their interests during negotiations on the bill.