Rob Andrews: “Mr. Speaker, we should not replace no advice for workers with bad advice for workers. A few days ago, the attorney…”

“Mr. Speaker, we should not replace no advice for workers with bad advice for workers. A few days ago, the attorney general for New York alleged a scheme involving the Merrill Lynch firm that worked like this: one part of the Merrill Lynch house, he alleged, was collecting huge fees for raising capital for Internet companies. The other side of the Merrill Lynch house was giving investment advice to individual clients, telling those individual clients that these Internet companies were the way to go with their money, encouraging them to buy the stock. This is not what these advisors were telling each other, though, in private e-mails and conversations that the attorney general of New York later found. What they were telling each other was these stocks were a joke; these stocks were a disaster. They were using words that should not be used in mixed company or on the House floor. This bill wants to take the quality of investment advice the New York attorney general alleged those people were receiving and offer it to the pensioners of this country. No advice should not be replaced with bad advice. The proposal would enshrine into the law, would legalize and legitimize the opportunity of unscrupulous advisors to offer advice which benefits them but not the pensioners to whom the advice is offered. Employees do need advice. They should be given a full array of choices.…”