Dean Baker, “If you want to talk to someone from Goldman Sachs, call the Treasury”

The futures regulator the CFTC unanimously approved tighter limits on how brokerage firms can use customer funds. It’s dubbed the “MF Global Rule,” coming in the wake of MF Global’s collapse, where it’s suspected Jon Corzine was betting with client money. $1.2 billion of that money is believed to be missing. The CFTC wanted to vote on this sooner, but they didn’t because of heavy lobbying reportedly from none other than Jon Corzine when he was head of MF global. And before all this went down, the U.S. Vice President is publicly recorded talking about going to Corzine for policy advice. So how can we believe politicians or regulators whey they say that they aim to regulate the very people that are advising them on policy? And what does this say about opposition to a financial transaction tax. We speak to economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.