Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, issued a statement today regarding her decision to support financial reform legislation recently presented to Congress. In her statement, Lee said the following:

Today, the House of Representatives took a significant stride toward improving the regulation of our financial system by ensuring that the appropriate safeguards are in place to protect Americans from another financial crisis.

Rep. Lee, along with many other Democrats, believes that the legislation will make the world a better and safer place for consumers.

"This important legislation will make our banks more transparent, put consumer rights before corporate profits, allows shareholder's more of a say on skyrocketing CEO pay packages and creates an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that puts consumers first," said Lee.

Some of the provisions mentioned in the legislation that Rep. Lee and others supported include the following:

- The creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Offices of Women and Minority inclusion in federal financial agencies
- A strengthening of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program
- Provisions to provide emergency assistance for unemployed homeowners

I like Barbara Lee, and I believe that she supports the interests of the black community. Also, financial reform was expected, given that any financial crisis is going to lead to reactionary-minded legislators finding ways to prevent the crisis from ever occurring again. Rep. Lee is not alone in the list of legislators who want to use this crisis as a chance to modify our economic system in order to avoid disaster.

The risk is that legislators tend to over-regulate, responding to the whims of consumers, who are sometimes not completely informed of the intricacies of financial markets. In this case, however, reform is necessary, since the trend toward deregulation started during the Bush Administration needs to be reversed at some point.

One of the reasons we should not push for too much reform is because if you drive with your foot on the brake of your car, it can never go very fast. In other words, much of the economic prosperity produced in the American economy over the past century is due, in large part, to flexibility within our economic system. If you completely prevent the risk of a crash, then you may inadvertently kill your chances for prosperity.

But I again reiterate that we're overdue for a reigning in of our financial system. The average American worker has not seen an increase in his/her real wage since 1999. Also, the wealthiest 1% of all Americans now controls 42% of all non-residential financial assets. This is part of a trend that has occurred over the past 20 years, where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Given that many black folks tend to be among the poorest, we are the ones who should most readily support Obama's efforts toward financial reform.

One problem, however, is that many of our leaders on financial reform have been bought and paid for by Wall Street. Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and other prominent names associated with this legislation are consistently wined and dined by the very individuals they are being asked to regulate. Hence, similar to the ugly ties that bind us to the oil industry, the financial services industry holds Wall Street firmly by the you-know-what.

Financial reform is a good thing, but nothing to be excited about. Real hope and change is not happening anytime soon. Let's just hope our legislators are working for us and not the ones who pay their bills. Wait, does that last statement even make any sense?

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.