House Passes Financial Reform

Not only did top bankers have to put up with pared-down bonuses on Friday, but now there’s this: The House of Representatives passed the most sweeping financial reform since the Great Depression without a single Republican vote, 223 to 202. The bill’s most important measures give federal regulators the power to break up banks without resorting to taxpayer bailouts, create a new agency to oversee consumer-banking transactions, and open up complex financial markets like the one for derivatives to regulation. “The party is over," Nancy Pelosi told Wall Street in a press conference. "Never again will the reckless behavior [of] a few threaten the fiscal stability of our people."