Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

If the financial bill contained no significant controls, if not elimination of the OTC derivative market, it is hollow and meaningless.

Wall St. money floods D.C. in finance bill fight
Lobbyists, who have spent $1.7 billion in 10 years, seek payback
By Eric Lichtblau and Edward Wyatt
updated 5:06 a.m. ET, Sun., May 23, 2010

WASHINGTON – Last Wednesday, Representative David Scott, Democrat of Georgia, mingled with insurance and financial executives and other supporters at a lunchtime fund-raiser in his honor at a chic Washington wine bar before rushing out to cast a House vote.

Nearby, supporters of Representative Michael E. Capuano, Democrat of Massachusetts, gathered that evening at a Capitol Hill town house for a $1,000-a-head fund-raiser. Just as that was wrapping up, Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, was feted by campaign donors at nearby Nationals Park at a game against the Mets.

It was just another day in the nonstop fund-raising cycle for members of the House Financial Services Committee, which has become a magnet for money from Wall Street and other deep-pocketed contributors, especially as Congress moves to finalize the most sweeping new financial regulations in seven decades.

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