I wonder who put the word in President Barry's ear? It is best to tread lightly around those treasured havens for financial piracy.
I discount any speculation that this is in reaction to a major breaking scandal on the metals exchanges. That would be too good.
The replacement is reported to be a Amanda Renteria, the former chief of staff to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan. Renteria was the first Latina chief of staff in the Senate.
She is the daughter of Mexican immigrant workers, studied at Harvard Business School, and spent most of her career in public service. However, after graduating she worked briefly at Goldman Sachs & Co.
She might turn out to be a highly effective regulator despite her lack of practical experience in financial regulation. That would be a nice change of pace for a generally docile and Big Finance compliant administration. Let's see what she has to say. But I am not hopeful given the Obama crew's abysmal track record in financial reform and 'change you can believe in.'
Here is a link to Renteria's bio.
Here is the story as it was carried by The Huffington Post.
Ouster is a gain for big bankers advocating lax oversight
The Obama Administration is quietly firing Commodity Futures Trading Commission head Gary Gensler, who ran afoul of big banks by pushing for greater government oversight.
The ouster comes in the midst of controversy over a proposed CFTF rule, strongly supported by Gensler, that would extend U.S. regulation to swaps--a kind of derivative exhange--involving firms founded or doing business in the United States. This means that foreign banks and hedge funds would face the same regulations as U.S. ones when trading in swaps with U.S. parties....
