As always, I await Elizabeth Warren's critique. But it doesn't take an expert to see that forbidding states from writing their own, tougher regulations probably isn't good:
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee will unveil on Monday a proposal to revamp the nation’s financial regulations that would empower shareholders to have advisory votes on executive pay and to nominate directors for the boards of public companies through company proxy ballots, several people briefed on the draft legislation said Saturday night.
The shareholder provisions, which have been vigorously opposed by many corporations and by Republicans, will be part of a bill that would amount to the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Depression. But with no Republican support yet for the proposal, Democratic lawmakers and the White House have been gearing up for a potentially bitter partisan fight.
The impending proposal by the chairman, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, hews in many ways to a proposal advanced last summer by the White House, the people briefed on the legislation said.
[...] The bill would create a consumer financial protection agency under the umbrella of the Federal Reserve, but with a director appointed by the president and the ability to write rules governing mortgages, credit cards, payday loans and a wide range of other financial products.
It would have some ability, within certain parameters, to ensure that the rules are followed; how the rules would be enforced has been a major source of partisan division. As in a House version of regulatory overhaul adopted in December, the bill would, in some circumstances, restrict states from writing their own, stronger consumer protection rules.
The Federal Reserve would see its bank supervision powers significantly diminished. It would continue to oversee bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in assets, and would be entrusted to regulate systemically important nonbank financial institutions. Mr. Dodd had considered setting the threshold at $100 billion, which would have been even worse for the Fed.
