Dodd Offers Last-Minute Compromise

Chris Dodd apparently has a flair for the dramatic: On Tuesday the Democratic Senator from Connecticut offered a last-minute deal on an issue in the financial reform bill that had the Senate in deadlock, filing a proposal a mere three minutes prior to the deadline for amendments. Dodd's compromise manipulated the language of a proposal that would force banks to cease trading almost all types of derivatives, a measure that would cut off major revenue streams for some of the nation's largest banks. The amended language makes it so the Senate would delay actually implementing this rule for two years; it will come under study of a federal council of regulators, and it may disappear altogether eventually. The derivatives ban, introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), was met with serious reservation by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and others in the Obama administration, and Senate Republicans. Though Dodd managed to push the bill past the GOP prior to amending it, the derivatives deadlock slowed its momentum.