Jack Reed's recent online forum revealed a bit about what he has been up to across the board, particularly as a high ranking member in the realms of Finance and Armed Services.  He is unabashedly pro-war, but that can be saved for another post.

From a ProJo live chat, Reed said:

"I'm fighting hard for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which is the best way to ensure that regulators will always put consumers before Wall St. going forward. There must be a sufficiently independent regulator with the tools and authority to focus on protecting consumers. As negotiations continue in the Senate, some proposals may change the form of the agency, but I am hopeful that this body will recognize the importance of consumer protection and will put in place the critical protections we need."

There has never been consumer protection on mortgages or credit cards.  As Harvard professor (and Bailout czaress) Elizabeth Warren  notes, credit card companies write clauses saying "we'll charge you what we want to charge you when we want to charge you."  (Hidden in 35 pages of credit card contract.)

For two decades the new source of "American wealth" became mortgage refinancing and hidden fees. Junk equalled Derivatives, and the selling of which was declared a growth in GDP.   Both ignorance and fraudulence contributed to the concept we could all be day traders for an overseas manufacturing base powered by colonial Third World labor.   Rome was burning, and Jack Reed was among those fiddling. But now is his chance to be our financial commando, get behind enemy lines, and defend us from the greed that has leeched off hard working people long enough.

Senator Reed recently expressed his belief that the Federal Reserve may lose some oversight power in the realm of smaller banks, conceding it instead to the FDIC.  Considering their track record in failing to spot the Savings & Loan scandal and failing to halt the current meltdown, they clearly should lose all regulatory powers on the major banks as well.  The American People deserve to have an accountability process, and the Fed is a private entity.  It is also worth noting he has little confidence in the taxing of Wall Street bonuses, despite overwhelming popular support.  Yet another example of representatives unwilling to represent.

Most disappointing has been the lack of accountability well after the smoke has cleared on the financial meltdown.  This is even more egregious than failing to investigate Larry Silverstein for massive insurance fraud after his World Trade Center building 7 was imploded, creating a clearly suspicious element to what was also one of the world's greatest insider trading schemes speculating on airline stocks.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has recently written Congress requesting that a full-scale investigation be launched.  One thing the 9-11 investigation taught us: be weary of who is appointed to do the investigating.  In a system where Bernie Madoff was, for example, Vice Chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers while maintaining a monster Ponzi scheme... we need investigators like Elizabeth Warren or Brooksley Born (who fought Greenspan on not regulating derivatives, as far back as 1990)  and hold the architects of disaster accountable.

What will Jack Reed do?  A man who has raised $3 million from Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate industries?  Whose 2010 numbers look like this?

Its not his fault they want to bribe him.  That's what they do.

What will Reed do...