Business for Shared Prosperity

By Stuart Gittleman
Complinet/Thomson Reuters, Jul 13 2010

Congress has been getting a Wall Street message disguised as the voice of Main Street, two representatives of small- and mid-size businesses said Monday. Real-world business needs the benefits of the financial regulatory reform bill, said the lobbyists, Margot Dorfman, chief executive of the US Women's Chamber of Commerce, and Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. Dorfman and Knapp joined Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT) in urging the Senate to follow the House in passing the bill.

"Our economic well-being depends on the success of our small and medium-sized businesses, and they were especially hard hit by the financial crisis," Himes said. "Wall Street reform will go a long way toward improving the confidence of investors and consumers, which will, in turn, help our businesses thrive and help turn the economy around."

Some sectors will suffer and some will even fail, as they should, Himes added, saying "business models based on tricking people should not be successful." Calling "liar loans," securitizing mortgages without disclosing the underlying risks and turning the derivatives market into a "huge casino" that did not serve the end users for which it was built examples of failed models, he said reform will give regulators the ability to prevent the market from taking too many overly risky bets.

Himes said: "We're seeing the same movie as in the 1930s (when big-money interests warned that financial reforms would harm the economy) but look what actually happened. Stability led to unprecedented growth with lower volatility." Dorfman and Knapp agreed, saying that big-bank front groups have distorted the bill's effect on small businesses that need a stable financial environment and predictable funding so they can thrive.

"America's small businesses will benefit by reforms bringing stability to our financial markets through decreasing risk and increasing transparency and accountability," Dorfman said. "This legislation will bring greater access, transparency and predictability to credit and capital markets, thereby allowing small businesses to plan with greater confidence and accuracy for their business growth needs."

"The US Chamber of Commerce does not represent the interests of small businesses that have suffered because of the irresponsible actions of the nation's biggest banks," Knapp said. "The US Chamber still wants Congress and the public to be afraid, claiming Wall Street reform will dry up loans to small business. But they're wrong. Small business supports this legislation because it will restore balance between Wall Street and Main Street through fair and common sense policies and create a stable, transparent financial environment in which community banks and credit unions can once again feel secure in making loans."

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