Clinton seeks crackdown for those breaking Wall Street rules

The Clinton plan would strengthen enforcement against financial wrongdoing by imposing a tax on so-called “high-frequency trading”.

Clinton is also willing to use administrative methods to restrict gun ownership. It also would put new rules in place to crack down on the “shadow banking” industry that has grown rapidly outside the traditional financial sector.

Clinton, who backed the developing trade pact when she was secretary of state during Obama’s first term, said she was anxious it would not do enough to crack down on currency manipulation or protect consumers from excessively high drug prices. Hillary Clinton’s emphasis on gun control eliminates any chance she can carry such states and restricts her to the strategy of trying to re-assemble Barack Obama’s 51 percent 2012 coalition.

I say this is all part of a move to the left because it’s yet another instance of Hillary turning course in that direction. Then it was free community college for all. Since then, Clinton has announced her opposition to Keystone and has now come out against TPP. The now-united opposition from the party’s presidential contenders leaves Obama in the uncomfortable position of watching a Democratic debate next week in which none of the major candidates is willing to defend a deal that the White House sees as a key piece of his presidential legacy.

A new proposal released by her campaign would impose a graduated “risk fee” on financial companies with more than $50 billion in assets that would increase as companies hold greater amounts of debt to discourage excessive risk.

On the other hand, if she waits too long and the wolves grow restless and impatient, they just might drop an indictment on her as thick as the Manhattan phone book.

Clinton’s proposal targets the frequent cancellation of buy orders by high-frequency traders, and Bart Chilton, a former Democratic-appointed commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, sees that as more nuanced than proposals by her rivals to levy a transaction tax on all stocking trading.

Wall Street reform, an issue regularly addressed by Sanders and O’Malley, will likely be a topic that allows the candidates to draw contrast with one another.

The financial crisis almost sent global financial markets into the abyss, or so we are told by the powers that be.

From the public perspective, a Biden campaign would be welcome, introducing an interesting twist to what otherwise looks like an uneventful coronation of Clinton.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Shortly after Clinton’s op-ed published, Bernie Sanders, her most formidable opponent in the Democratic 2016 field, issued a pointed statement insinuating that Clinton is a newcomer to Wall Street reform.

Biden has said repeatedly he has not made a decision and doesn’t lean either way. “One year ago, who was predicting that all top Democratic candidates would be talking about jailing Wall Street bankers, breaking up too big to fail banks, and picking executive branch appointees who will crack down on Wall Street?” he said. Changing her mind when it suits her politically, regardless of what’s good for our economy, jobs and the American people?