Politico Reporter: Lawmakers Leery of Financial Reform’s Potential Pitfalls

Politico reporter Eamon Javers, who “covers the intersection of Wall Street and Washington,” stopped by The Rundown Tuesday afternoon to talk about financial reform legislation advancing through Congress. President Barack Obama is headed to New York City on Thursday to speak about his own goals for rewriting Wall Street rules.

“Nobody in the debate right now thinks that what we’ve got currently is good because the system as it is basically implies a U.S. taxpayer guarantee for some of biggest financial institutions in the world,” Javers said. “That’s not really tenable. Nobody in Washington wants to see that continue, but everybody has different opinions of how to get rid of it.”

Javers said many lawmakers — who just finished more than a year of complicated and often heated health reform negotiations — are studying up on complex financial rules and could begin amending legislation as early as this week. But lawmakers who do not fully grasp the regulations as they stand are concerned about creating “all kinds of potential unintended consequences” in any financial reform legislation, Javers said.

Javers also discussed the news that Goldman Sachs — “the investment bank everyone loves to hate in Washington these days,” as he put it — has hired Gregory Craig, President Obama’s former White House counsel, saying that the firm has a history of hiring political insiders to help with its legal and political challenges.

Watch our full conversation: