DODD FRANK
President Trump today (Thurs) signed a bill that Congress passed Tuesday to reduce regulations placed on banks after the 2008 economic collapse.
U-S Senator Sherrod Brown noted that the same day the House voted to roll back Dodd Frank rules, the F-D-I-C reported banks have been making record profits.
“It’s been 7 or 8 or 9 years in a row of mostly double digit percentage increase in profits for the nation’s banking system. So why do we continued to give them tax cuts? Why do we continue to weaken regulations when the middle class continues to get squeezed? “
The Ohio Democrat who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, calls it a case of “collective amnesia” between Senate Republicans and a few Democrats who he says appear to forget the bank bailouts of 10 years ago.
CHINA TRADE
Brown sent a letter to President Trump yesterday (Wed) urging him to be tough in trade talks with China. The same day the Senate Banking Committee passed a bill pushed by Brown’s with a similar goal.
Sherrod Brown of Ohio says no country is more aggressive than China in acquiring sensitive American technology to make its own. State-run Chinese companies often require American companies to share technology to get access to their market. The U-S government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – known as CFIUS – is supposed to review acquisition of American companies by foreigners. But Brown says China has been finding ways around it.
“For example," says Brown, "if a Chinese investor wanted to buy a controlling stake in an American company CFIUS would review that deal and have a chance to block it.
"But if Chinese investors instead got seats on that company board they could still have access to the same sensitive technology without triggering a CFIUS review. That’s present law. That’s what we want to change.”
The bill is meant to protect American national security. Last year, Brown teamed up with Republican Senator Charles Grassley for a bill that would allow the Commerce Department to review foreign investments that might threaten U-S economic security.