New Committee Chair Gets Ready to Serve -- the Banks

After 18 years in the House, Republican Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus will finally take over as House Finance Committee chair come January. The committee has wide jurisdiction over banks, capital markets, housing, consumer credit and the health and stability of the financial system. Bachus explained to his local paper the new attitude he plans to bring to his job: "In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks," Bachus declared. Before he even takes over the committee, Bachus is already on bended knee threatening to gut funding for Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, working to postpone the implementation of the "Volcker rule" ban on Goldman Sachs-style proprietary trading, and pledging to weaken the derivatives reform portion of the bill, calling it "overly expansive."