If I could add another amendment to The United States Constitution it would read: Section I: Congress shall enact no laws that a person of average intelligence is unable to understand. Section II: Any administrative rules created to regulate, enforce and/or clarify said law shall be limited to no more than 5 double spaced printed pages.
I make these proposals based on the Volker Rule which, with much fanfare, has just been enacted into law. This is the rule proposed by former Fed. Chairman Paul Volker after the last financial debacle. Its intent is to prevent banks from speculating with depositor’s Federally insured money. (“The Volcker Rule: A Triumph of Complexity Over Common Sense,” by Allan Sloan, Fortune, January 13, 2014 pg. 49.)
Unfortunately, by the time the affected parties added their “ifs,” “ands” and “whereases,” and the lobbyists threw in everything but an old pair of rubber boots, the rule was 892 pages long and written in language so arcane that, according to financial columnist, Allen Sloan, the common man would be more at home squinting through pages of ancient Greek. (Ibid, pg. 49.)
Everyone knows a law that’s too long and too complex is no good to anyone except lawyers. Add the 1,000 pages of explanations and the courts are going to have a field day. Regulators are bound to get lost in the word thicket, which, I suspect, is the intent.
If citizen’s are expected to sleep easier now that Volker and the Congress have spoken about the safety of our bank deposits, I can draw only one conclusion. Folks who hold this view are dreaming already.
(Courtesy of www.barscene.sg)
