Jon S. Corzine: “I wish to make a couple of simple points. First, this amendment brings forward fairly simple, straightforward oversight…”

“I wish to make a couple of simple points. First, this amendment brings forward fairly simple, straightforward oversight functions that are typical in every financial market in which I have ever participated and in which I spent 30 years of my life working, and that is antifraud, price manipulation and transparency rules that are fundamental to making the depth and breadth of the financial markets work. We have great financial markets in America. This amendment accomplishes bringing that to bear in this energy market. In fact, since this amendment was originally offered, there has been an enormous number of attempts to make sure it does not impact that $75 trillion market about which the Senator from Texas talked. It exempts financial futures, equities, currencies, and debt instruments from any of the legal constraints. I think it has been adjusted to address most of the concerns I certainly have heard from my friends with whom I used to work in the financial sector. It is very clear in small, confined markets where there is not the depth and breadth that price manipulation is a very real possibility. As a matter of fact, it was cited in the 1999 President's Working Group on Financial Instruments, including Alan Greenspan, that at that point energy markets were narrow enough so as to cause problems. We ought to move forward in response to the kinds of problems we have seen at Enron. I hope Members will vote for cloture. I thank the Chair.”