So much of financial reform is difficult to understand and derivatives are probably the most difficult.  Our view is that’s not by accident.  We call it “created complexity” and the Wall Street “fog machine,” which is done to intimidate, confuse and ultimately to keep people from looking too closely at what they are really doing.  

Our view is also that almost anyone of ordinary intelligence can understand what Wall Street is doing and what it means to to Main Street once their created complexity is stripped of the Orwellian jargon and spin. 

Unfortunately, Wall Street and its allies, especially its political allies in the House of Representatives, are experts at distraction, distortion and outright falsehoods about what they are doing and what it really means.  Cutting through all this isn’t easy, but the New York Times editorial page did it today in an outstanding editorial entitled “Not Enough Reform on Derivatives:  Attempts to Undercut Regulation of Derivatives Will Lead to Future Bailouts.”  

In plain, understandable English, the editorial makes plain what the House is doing and what it means.  

Everyone who cares about financial reform and preventing another financial crisis and taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street must read it.