Be very afraid. Dodd Frank regs are rolled back, Wall Street's bull is charging like it did in the 90s, and now a bill passed by the Republican House last year has less opposition in the Senate, which last year stopped it. This new bill was opposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), according to Huffpo (which agrees with her that this is serious) and Investor Weekly (which gushes its passage will be wonderful). www.investmentnews.com/article/20170309/FREE/170309907/senate-panel-approves-bill-to-promote-etf-research
Warren pointed out the obvious. Loosening requirements on ETF research, allowing broker salesmen to write their own puff pieces and call it research, was a conflict of interest. Bank of America has been lobbying hard for this one.
But conflicts of interest, especially big ones, are being normalized in Washington’s swamp, which seems freshly stocked with crocs, not drained. ETFs are Exchange Traded Funds, which purchase combinations of assets and sell ownership stock to investors. Their growth began to mushroom after 2008, and are now valued at $2.1 trillion. They charge big fees and, like mortgage securities, are complicated and hard to understand. Bank of America has been lobbying to exempt brokers who write research from any legal liability, reports HuffPo. This new bill delivers that. Without legal liability, selling is so much easier.
Warren offered an amendment in committee to make them liable, but then withdrew it. Maybe somebody broke it to her that this exemption from liability already applies to stock research. Hold Wall Street accountable? On this, Warren seems to be one of a handful trying to keep crocodiles at bay.
Read more here: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congress-bank-of-america_us_58c07932e4b0ed718269a50c
* The economic theory that women should always work for less, or better, for free.