The Financial Reform Act that just passed should TERRIFY all of you US webmasters.... :(
 

Seriously.... no politics. Think about the implications of this:http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...ic-disclosure/

"So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot."

"Aguirre used FOIA requests in his own lawsuit against the SEC, which the SEC settled this year by paying him $755,000. Aguirre, who was fired in September 2005, argued that supervisors at the SEC stymied an investigation of Pequot ? a charge that prompted an investigation by the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees.

The SEC closed the case in 2006, but would re-open it three years later. This year, Pequot and its founder, Arthur Samberg, were forced to pay $28 million to settle insider-trading charges related to shares of Microsoft (MSFT: 25.65 ,-0.38 ,-1.46%). The settlement with Aguirre came shortly later.

?From November 2008 through January 2009, I relied heavily on records obtained from the SEC through FOIA in communications to the FBI, Senate investigators, and the SEC in arguing the SEC had botched its initial investigation of Pequot?s trading in Microsoft securities and thus the SEC should reopen it, which it did,? Aguirre said. ?The new legislation closes access to such records, even when the investigation is closed."

?FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain a 2005 survey that the SEC in Fort Worth was sending to Stanford investors. The survey showed that the SEC had suspicions about Stanford several years prior to the collapse of his $7 billion empire.

?FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain copies of emails between Federal Reserve lawyers, AIG and staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in which it was revealed the Fed staffers knew that bailing out AIG would result in bonuses being paid.

Recently, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren told FOX Business that the network?s Freedom of Information Act efforts played a ?very important part? of the panel?s investigation into AIG.

Warren told the network the government ?crossed a line? with the AIG bailout.

?FOX News and the congressional oversight panel has pushed, pushed, pushed, for transparency, give us the documents, let us look at everything. Your Freedom of Information Act suit, which ultimately produced 250,000 pages of documentation, was a very important part of our report. We were able to rely on the documents that you pried out for a significant part of our being able to put this report together,? Warren said.

The SEC first made its intention to block further FOIA requests known on Tuesday. FOX Business was preparing for another round of ?skirmishes? with the SEC, according to Mintz, when the agency called and said it intended to use Section 929I of the 2000-page legislation to refuse FBN?s ongoing requests for information."




.:disgust
:Oh crap
:mad:

sorry but clif notes are?

Sorry but the Liberals on this forum aren't intelligent enough to internalize any of that.

I looked briefly and found a reply from the SEC about it, and what they say it's for:
http://businessjournalism.org/2010/0...ancial-reform/

?The new provision applies to information obtained through examinations or derived from that information. We are expanding our examination program?s surveillance and risk assessment efforts in order to provide more sophisticated and effective Wall Street oversight. The success of these efforts depends on our ability to obtain documents and other information from brokers, investment advisers and other registrants. The new legislation makes certain that we can obtain documents from registrants for risk assessment and surveillance under similar conditions that already exist by law for our examinations. Because registrants insist on confidential treatment of their documents, this new provision also removes an opportunity for brokers, investment advisers and other registrants to refuse to cooperate with our examination document requests.?

In other words, companies cant say "I wont give you those documents because my competitors could file a freedom of information act request on your investigation and thereby learn my trade secrets and client list". And now the SEC can say, "Don't worry, we'll tell them to fuck off, now hand over the papers asshole.".

Yeah, I trust that, NOT! You really think it will be used just for that?

i stopped reading at "Fox News" ;)

What I wont do is have a knee jerk reaction. Thats the same thing Obama did when he spoke against the AZ law: took an extremely unlikely possibility and spoke like it was GOING to happen, therefore the whole thing is bad. Well no family has been carded standing in line for ice cream, and no problems have arisen from the SEC being able to block people from requesting information on an investigation. When those things happen, I'll get pissed.

See... that's what people say about the Arizona law. ;-)

You're doing the comparing, Not me, this is about the government installing a loop hole they can abuse later, not cops possibly racially profiling Mexicans.

Or are you guys not following Charlie Rangel's problems, you know the guy that's been not paying his taxes and had the job of chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee?

President Obama's To Do List

? Increase the size of government through massive additions on bureaucracy (done)
? Golf
? Take over private financial markets (done)
? Golf
? Acquire US auto industry (done)
? Vacation
? Set up deals with labor Union Lobbyist (done)
? Beers with the VP
? Apologize to the world for our flagrant greed and prosperity (working on it)
? Fund raiser party for the democrats
? Take over health care (done)
? Golf
? Stop access to information of government agencies (done)
? Vacation
? Take over energy industries (in progress)
? Golf
? Nationalize the media
? Golf
? Realign congressional districts to insure party favoritism
? Golf
? Remove the Electoral College
? Golf
? Eliminate that pesky two party system
? Golf
? Harass red states that didn't support you (in progress, starting with AZ)
? Retire in Hawaii :winkwink:

Is that kinda like the same thing Bush did for the Federal Reserve?

EXACTLY!! and that scares the crap out of me also.

I really can't understand you PR Tom.... do you REALLY trust the government to do things to us without allowing us access to what is going on? I'm not talking about war powers, or military secrets here.... I'm talking about things that could be done TO YOU.


. ...and MaDalton.... Well, nevermind bud... I guess it isn't anything you have to worry about anyway. :)




.

MADalton is one of those hilarious trolls that has nothing to offer by way of intelligence so his only response would be "LOL FOX NEWS".

Except that the Arizona law

1. is only 16 pages and an easy read, as opposed to 2000+ that no one who voted for it actually read, as in this case
2. Exactly copies federal law
3. Has not provisions for government secrecy. When government does things secretly, that are not related to national security... WATCH OUT!



Whatever.... I can see I'm doing no good here.



.

I warned you. You're posting facts and logical arguments in the wrong place. You're dealing with the dumbest of the dumbest here.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh


.

This government is just out of control, and there's not a single damn thing we can do about it.

and Teabaggers? please... they'd be just as bad.

If you are still buying into the whole Democrat vs. Republican two party system bullshit. You need to open your eyes. It's a perfect setup to make you think you have a little choice. Sure they have some different viewpoints, ones that are irrelevant.

They are both 1 in the same, same shit, different assholes.

It's pointless to argue with the dining room table guys, sorry. I was perfectly clear and even gave a simple example, and you want to use it against me lmao.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

You got that right!

Sally.

You're missing out on alot of important information.