It’s perhaps the most important job no one has ever heard of. Yesterday, Harvard professor Cass Sunstein was confirmed by the Senate as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, otherwise known as the nation’s “regulatory czar.” Nowadays, the mere mention of a czar tends …
The Obama Administration’s claims that General Motors — the federally-owned auto manufacturer — is independent from political entanglements is once again being tested, this time with an international twist. The issue is what to do with Opel, GM’s German-based European subsidiary (as well as the smaller, British-based Vauxhal). Last week, …
Don’t look now, but the FCC is back in business. For some nine months the Federal Communications Commission had been operating with no permanent chairman, and with 3 of its 5 commissioner seats vacant. Now, with the confirmation of new chairman Julius Genachowski, and new commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Meredith …
If you like what’s happened to the auto industry, you’ll love this. Bloomberg is reporting today that Ron Bloom — the head of the Obama Administration’s automobile task force — will soon get an expanded portfolio, with responsiblity for crafting Administration policies for all manufacturing industries. Yet another Obama Administration …
The U.S. government is a favorite target among spinners of conspiracy theories. From the Kennedy assasination to the Apollo Moon landing, the government has allegedly been at the heart of dark plots to deceive the public. Washington, however, can spin its own conspiracy theories. Case in point, Tuesday’s announcement by …
After months of internal debate, President Obama today released his much-anticipated plan for reforming the nation’s financial regulatory system. The 85-page document is nothing if not comprehensive, containing a grab bag of changes covering almost every aspect of the troubled financial industry. Taken as a whole, the changes would trigger …
With General Motors slated for nationalization, and the government holding major stakes in Chrysler and several major banks, many concerned observers have been asking when it will all end. President Obama, however, has not even ventured a guess. The omission is an odd, and dangerous, one: the president who campaigned …
In his statement yesterday announcing that 10 banks would be repaying $68 billion in TARP bailout funds, President Obama proudly asserted that the step would reduce the national debt: “And as this money is returned, we’ll see our national debt lessened by $68 billion — billions of dollars that this …
Yesterday, the Treasury Department announced that 10 financial institutions had been cleared to return their TARP bailout money — totalling some $68 billion to the government. This is good news — taxpayers are finally getting some of their money back, and banks look to regain their independence, putting the threat …
