Campaign of Misinformation
by Rudy Avizius
Posted February 12, 2010
There is an organization called The Committee for Truth in Politics and it has been running an ad recently regarding House Bill HR4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. According to the Media Analysis Group, this ad has run in 35 markets in Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. This 30 second ad makes it sound like this bill will result in another bailout of the banks and tries to arouse the anger that most Americans feel about the bailouts and direct that anger at this bill.
Some of the key provisions of this bill include:
*Directs the Comptroller General to audit and report to Congress on all actions taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) and the Federal Reserve Banks during the current economic crisis
*Subject financial companies to stricter prudential standards
*Require financial holding companies to undertake one or more mitigatory actions to address any grave threat its activities pose to the financial stability or economy of the United States
*Prohibits certain conversions of troubled banks and thrifts
*Requires a separate, non-binding shareholder vote to approve the compensation, including golden parachutes compensation, of corporate and financial institution executives.
*Requires each member of the compensation committee of the board of directors of an issuer of securities to be independent
*Repeals the exemption from CFTC regulation of derivatives transactions
*Establishes the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) as an independent agency to regulate the provision of consumer financial products or services
*It caps the amount of money that can be used by the Federal Reserve to rescue banks at $4 Trillion
The Committee for Truth in Politics seems to object to the $4Trillion Federal Reserve authority, but what this video neglects to tell you is the Federal Reserve already has the authority to act in “unusual and exigent circumstances” without any cap. This Committee for Truth in Politics also has no website and has made no disclosures to the Federal Election Commission. The Committee is represented by attorney James Bopp, Jr., who has refused to disclose the Committees donors. So why would this shadowy organization not want this bill passed?
These people do not want transparency in where the Federal Reserve spent its money. They know it will shine a light in the dark alleys where $Billions in taxpayer funds were spent. They also wish to preserve the current lack of financial regulation which ironically setup the very conditions that brought about the bailouts.
While this is certainly not a perfect bill and has certainly been watered down by the financial industry lobbyists. One glaring example is the lack of action on downsizing “too big to fail” companies and the fact that national banks were shielded from more stringent state regulations, and only subject to the more lenient federal regulations. Also missing is the reinstatement of the Glass-Stegal firewall that used to exist prohibiting banks from gambling with depositers’ money.
The fact that the Federal Reserve must now disclose where it spent $Billions of taxpayer dollars should bring joy to every American’s heart. The requirement of having shareholders approve executive compensation and keeping the “insiders” from dipping into the money trough for their own benefit should benefit all investors and help protect them from “insider theft” of profits. The requirement that derivatives be regulated is certainly a step in the right direction. let’s just hope that the Senate version of this bill is even tougher and forces the House to toughen theirs up as well when it goes into conference.
So when you watch this video, you need to be aware that this is the beginning of a very well financed campaign of misinformation about issues in the guise of trying to correct them. With the recent disasterous Supreme Court decision that eliminated all limits on political spending by corporations, we can now expect MANY MORE disceptive ads such as this one in the future. Be especially aware of ads that do not provide any factual information such as this video ad, but rather work on your emotions.
BE AWARE!
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There is an organization called The Committee for Truth in Politics and it has been running an ad recently regarding House Bill HR4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. According to the Media Analysis Group, this ad has run in 35 markets in Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. This 30 second ad makes it sound like this bill will result in another bailout of the banks and tries to arouse the anger that most Americans feel about the bailouts and direct that anger at this bill.