Senator Chuck Grassley put a clause back into the Senate's anti-insider trader law that requires financial analysts who meet with Congressmen and their staffs to register their meetings.
The purpose of this clause is to bring transparency to the information peddling that represents a lucrative business for hedge funds and banks that trade on insider information from the Congressmen themselves.
There is also the selling of information obtained in private meetings with the Congress to hedge funds. And rumour has it that quite a bit of that information spreads its way through the halls of the august Wall Street banks as well who help to gather it as well.
Wall Street apparently went into full court lobbying mode when they found out that Grassley had resubmitted this clause after they had successfully had it removed.
The clause only requires analysts to register their contacts and to disclose how they might be using the information provided by the Congress.
Information is power, and private access to public power is one of the great strengths of the Wall Street monied interests.
This bill might curtail the ability of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to obtain private information from the Finance Committees. And they are upset about the loss of that privilege.
I am sure Mr. Obama, the great reformer who promised transparency, is solidly behind this move by the Republican Senator Grassley, right? Hard to tell right now.
Panic on Wall Street.
Bloomberg
Wall Street Sees Analysts Snagged by Political Intelligence Bill
By Phil Mattingly and Robert Schmidt
Feb 7, 2012 12:01 AM ET
A U.S. Senate measure that would place restrictions on people who gather and sell government information to hedge funds may entangle bank research analysts and others on Wall Street, according to lawyers and lobbyists. (The others are the conduits to the trading desks of the TBTF banks - Jesse)
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., held a rare weekend call for members on Feb. 4 to discuss the measure, according to two people with direct knowledge of the call.
The provision, part of a broader bill that passed the Senate last week and is scheduled to face a House vote this week, may require analysts and others to register with Congress and disclose contacts with government officials, according to a legal analysis prepared for the group’s members.
“There are going to be a lot of entities and organizations who will not want their people anymore to contact government officials to get information which might be used for a number perfectly appropriate purposes,” Robert L. Walker, an attorney for Wiley Rein LLP who is listed as one of the authors of the legal memo, said of the impact of the provision. ('Jump you fuckers' as the Tea Party said before they turned corporate. lol - Jesse)
The broader bill would ban lawmakers, their staffs, and much of the executive branch from trading stocks, commodities or futures based on confidential information they learn on the job. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, succeeded last week in adding the provision that targets trading in so-called “political intelligence.” (There is nothing 'so-called' about it. That is what it is, and it is a form of corruption, albeit lucrative. - Jesse)
Such information may include conversations with lawmakers, congressional staff or other government officials about the future of legislation or regulations that have not been made public. That information has been targeted by lawmakers, who are pushing to identify firms and individuals in the business and force them to disclose their clients....