President Obama nominated Representative Mel Watt (D–NC) as new chief regulator to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), replacing the current acting director Edward DeMarco. Watt has strong support from liberals in both the House and the Senate as a longtime member of the House Financial Services Committee and advocate …
The parliament of Cyprus today emphatically rejected a European Union (EU) bailout plan that would have taxed private bank deposits. The plan did not garner a single vote in support, while 36 members voted against the plan; 19 parliamentarians abstained and one was absent for the vote. The deeply unpopular …
A not-so-small cottage industry has grown up refuting liberal economist Paul Krugman’s public pronouncements. It’s not a hard industry to join, and there’s plenty of work, but it can be repetitive. Even so, Krugman’s recent writings opposing federal spending cuts for the sake of the economy are sufficiently troubling to …
Menzie Chinn took to the blog Econbrowser last Thursday to accuse conservative economists in general – and The Heritage Foundation in particular – of being inconsistent, since we did not share his optimism about the benefits of the 2009 stimulus, but we’ve warned of the danger of the fiscal cliff. …
House leaders have reportedly struck a deal to vote on reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank next week despite strident opposition from conservatives. Heritage’s Bryan Riley has called it the “Fannie Mae for exporters.” The Export-Import Bank provides taxpayer-subsidized loans to U.S. exporters. The bank’s charter will expire at the end …
After more than a year of delay, the House Financial Services Committee is finally starting work on legislation that will hopefully end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two housing finance giants that helped to make the housing crisis worse. Both essentially failed in September 2008 and have been in …
When the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul bill was passed last summer, it was done so with much of the fanfare and self-congratulation that has come to typify Washington. Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called it the “toughest set of Wall Street reform in generations.” But the bill’s hype was not …
The Wall Street Journal reports today: Banks are considering additional fees on credit cards and checking accounts. But they also are looking at new ways to make money on cash machines and especially debit cards as regulators pinch the cards’ conventional revenue streams. And what exactly is to blame for …
