Not that this will curb his populist rhetoric, but President Obama is running out of opponents in his push for new financial regulations.
While he pitches his fight as a battle against the wealthy special interests, he more or less has Wall Street’s giants on board, and now we get word that the big insurers aren’t really putting up a fight.
SNL Financial, a trade publication for the insurance industry, carries this enlightening piece:
Despite protests from some quarters of the industry — notably United Services Automobile Association’s concerns about the impact of the “Volcker rule” ban on proprietary trading on their mixed banking and insurance business model — other industry leaders likewise have opined in recent days that the bill is likely to have a mostly benign effect on insurers.
Again, don’t expect this fact to get in the way of Obama portraying this bill as a broadside to the special interests. And that reformer-vs-industry narrative, like an old blanket or a bowl of chicken-noodle soup, is too familiar and too comfortable for the mainstream press to shed. It’s up to trade journals like SNL — which aim to arm readers with valuable facts rather than entertain them with a nice tale — to shine a light on what’s actually happening.
