Change You Can Believe In, pt 3

THEN: US companies fell under the authority of the US government's regulatory agencies such as the FTC, SEC and countless others. The role of these agencies was to ensure that firms reported income/loss accurately, and they followed standard government guidelines for fair practice, transparency, safety and stability. The government stopped short of regulating wage and compensation packages, because, this is like, you know, America.

NOW: According to the G20 communique, The One has allowed, with apparent little or no protest, to allow US corporations to be regulated by a Global "Financial Stability Board" whose powers reach as far as the paychecks of those running the corporations. From the communique:

12. We will conduct all our economic policies cooperatively and responsibly with regard to the impact on other countries and will refrain from competitive devaluation of our currencies and promote a stable and well-functioning international monetary system. We will support, now and in the future, to candid, even-handed, and independent IMF surveillance of our economies and financial sectors, of the impact of our policies on others, and of risks facing the global economy.....

14. We each agree to ensure our domestic regulatory systems are strong. But we also agree to establish the much greater consistency and systematic cooperation between countries, and the framework of internationally agreed high standards, that a global financial system requires. Strengthened regulation and supervision must promote propriety, integrity and transparency; guard against risk across the financial system; dampen rather than amplify the financial and economic cycle; reduce reliance on inappropriately risky sources of financing; and discourage excessive risk-taking. Regulators and supervisors must protect consumers and investors, support market discipline, avoid adverse impacts on other countries, reduce the scope for regulatory arbitrage, support competition and dynamism, and keep pace with innovation in the marketplace....

• to establish a new Financial Stability Board (FSB) with a strengthened mandate, as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), including all G20 countries, FSF members, Spain, and the European Commission;

• to reshape our regulatory systems so that our authorities are able to identify and take account of macro-prudential risks;

• to extend regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments and markets. This will include, for the first time, systemically important hedge funds;

• to endorse and implement the FSF’s tough new principles on pay and compensation and to support sustainable compensation schemes and the corporate social responsibility of all firms;