Money, oil, transparency and videotape

Let’s go to the replay.

In the past month, World Cup referees have disallowed goals – not just by the United States – and a Major League Baseball umpire robbed a Detroit Tigers pitcher of a perfect game despite ample recorded evidence that the calls were flat-out wrong. FIFA does not allow any video review of calls; MLB does not allow review of any base running.

At the same time, the world has 24/7 access to live images of oil gushing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico into the global eco-system. What looks like footage of those underwater thermal vents revealed by the first unmanned submersibles is actually a disaster of Biblical proportions unfolding in real-time slow motion. It took about a month for tarballs to begin washing ashore, which gave residents time to prepare – and authorities time to fumble their response.

While BP failed with one untested fix after another, live, on camera – who hasn’t had that nightmare of showing up for a final exam you never studied for? – government agencies were tripping over each other to prove this wasn’t another Katrina. Investigations, however, seem to point toward the sad fact that both had their roots in regulatory dereliction of duty stretching back decades.

Which brings us to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the 2,300-page federal financial overhaul legislation unlikely to be ready for President Obama’s signature before this issue of the Business Report is published.

The whole thing is posted at http://financialservices.house.gov/, for some light reading over the long holiday weekend. Title VII – 444 pages known as the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010, where the “consumer” is not mentioned until page 297 – does not address using instant replay for particularly tricky security-based swaps, but it does introduce a hypothetical figure who might benefit from it: The “prudential regulator.”

Like a FIFA referee, this transparency czar would be required to consult with other sideline observers – the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the new Financial Stability Oversight Council- to be sure that “economically similar” instruments are treated in a similar fashion. However, they don’t have to be treated in an “identical manner.” If the linesmen and the ref can’t agree – and they would have a year to set rules, regulations and, most importantly, exemptions – the U.S. District Court in D.C. makes the call.

Maybe they can watch the video.

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