The New York Times reports this morning, “Politicians like nothing more than a convenient foil, and Democrats locked in a stubborn impasse with Republicans over new rules to govern Wall Street believe they have found a gold-plated one in Goldman Sachs. Democrats say the convergence of their push for an overhaul of financial regulation and a prominent federal securities case against the prestigious investment firm is a matter of coincidence, not planning.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) added: “If the disclosures at these hearings are not the final nail that persuades …
Sen. Christopher Dodd insists that his financial reform bill is aimed at Wall Street companies. But USAA, the well-known financial-services company for members of the U.S. military and their families, is worried that it will wind up caught in the Dodd bill dragnet. In a rare move, USAA CEO Joe Robles recently sent an email to each of its members, asking them to contact their representatives in Washington and urge them to make a certain change to the Dodd bill. Specifically, Robles hopes to amend the portion of the bill …
The Wall Street Journal reports that Barack Obama’s favorite capitalist, Warren Buffet, is seeking an exemption from Obama-endorsed derivatives rules for his insurance-and-everything conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. Derivatives are risk-shifting financial contracts that Buffet infamously described as “weapons of financial mass destruction.” After the 2008 financial crisis, Buffet decided to join the nuclear club and Berkshire has amassed a $63 billion derivatives portfolio. At issue is a proposed new rule in the Senate financial reform legislation requiring everyone who buys, sells, or trades derivatives to post collateral: cash or cash equivalents …
Speaking to an audience of big business and big labor executives (including Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein, Bank of America’s Bruce Thompson and SEIU’s Andy Stern) at New York’s Cooper Union, President Barack Obama noted “the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape” the financial regulation bill “to their special interests.” Obama then admitted, “I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you. But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort.” Obama should have …
President Obama went to Wall Street today to make the case for financial regulation. Putting aside the bank-bashing rhetoric employed just a few months ago (“…if these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I’m willing to have“), this time he was measured in his rhetoric, making the case for the reform bill now pending in the Senate. And he made good points. “We need a system to shut [failing].. firms down with the least amount of collateral damage to innocent people and businesses…The goal is to make certain that …
This past Friday, President Barack Obama again threatened to veto any financial reform bill that fails to tightly regulate financial derivative products which many blame for the 2008 economic crisis. Derivatives work like insurance to protect certain investments, and provide stability to the price of most goods and services. For example, farmers buy derivatives on the price of their crops, so if the price of their crop plummets, the price of the food at the grocery store won’t change that much. Airlines buy derivatives on oil, so if the price …
One of many bureaucratic boondoggles in the Senate financial “reform” legislation is a “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Protection.” Just how exactly would the proposed new bureaucracy protect consumers? The same way bureaucrats do everything: with more paperwork and fewer choices. A few years ago, a TV commercial showed a man in a trench coat slinking through a grocery story, slipping items into his pockets. He glided past the registers without stopping to pay, only to be stopped by a friendly security guard. “Sir, you forgot your receipt.” This sort …
So now President Obama is threatening to veto financial reform legislation Democratic leaders in Congress are working to pass if it is not tough enough on derivatives. There is really no disagreement between Obama and Congressional Democrats on the issue, just a bizarre attempt to make non-news. Obama is in high dudgeon because his advisors claim derivatives caused the 2008 financial crisis. The problem is this claim is false, and the proposals Obama offers would make future crises in the derivatives market more rather than less likely. There is actually …
Conservatives say the Dodd Finance Bill means Wall Street Bailouts Forever. Progressives say the Dodd bill “makes bailouts impossible.” Who’s right? Well lets ask Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who described the bill this way in The Washington Post: The Senate bill gives the government the authority to wind down the firm with no exposure to the taxpayer. No more bailouts. Instead, we will have a bankruptcy-like regime where equityholders will be wiped out and the assets will be sold. “No more bailouts.” Sounds nice. But what does “bankruptcy-like regime” mean?
President Obama met today with members of Congress to jawbone them on the pending financial reform bill. A key part of his message: “we must end taxpayer bailouts.” Few statements are less controversial than that. Nobody wants to see more bailouts. But wait a second. Doesn’t the very legislation he’s plumping for — and which will soon be voted on in the Senate — itself provides for bailouts. When asked that by a reporter just before the meeting, the President hedged, saying only “…I am absolutely confident that the bill …
