Bob Barr writes:
Hallelujia! We’ll now have another “Reform!” law — this one designed to “reform” our “financial services” industry to prevent any further meltdowns such as that which struck in 2008 and continues to cripple segments of our economy two years later. The president himself could hardly contain his hyperbole in describing the legislation he is today set to sign into law; he calls it “innovative” and “creative.” Yet, lurking within its hundreds of pages of fine print, are provisions that will essentially destroy what little financial privacy remains for virtually every consumer of financial services in the country. In that respect, yes, the legislation certainly is ”creative”; but that is one kind of creativity we can do without.
But it’s really too late. Thanks to this financial services “reform” law, federal bureaucrats will have ready access to virtually every financial transaction that will take place in the country — from the largest bank acquisition to the smallest ATM withdrawal. The guise under which federal regulators will be able to gather and data-base such detailed financial transaction information will be the responsibility given them in this new law to ensure that every “financial product or service” is “fair, transparent and competitive.”
Read more on The Barr Code.