As the Senate moves closer to another cloture vote on Senator Dodd’s legislation, we are again reminded of the several flaws found in the Dodd-Frank approach to financial regulatory reform. Beginning with the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns in the spring of 2008, the Federal government has committed trillions …
It makes a future market melt-down more likely. Today the Senate takes up Senator Blanche Lincoln’s amendment to regulate over-the-counter derivatives. The Lincoln bill is very, very bad, but don’t take out word for it, ask the Federal Reserve. Fed Staffers released a four page, seven point critique saying the …
The latest word today is that the GOP is standing down from its standoff over the Senate’s financial-regulation bill. Specifically, word is that Republican leaders will now let the bill proceed to the floor, having received assurances that provisions for creditor bailouts will be removed. That’s not an insignificant improvement, …
Somebody spilled the beans Tuesday, telling the truth about the financial reform bill being debated in Congress. But most media ignored it. Rather than being the targets of this bill, Wall Street financiers will be rewarded by it. The chairman of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, told a Senate subcommittee, “The …
The Dodd financial reform bill is beginning to scare executives. However, it is not necessarily scaring bankers or Wall Street fat cats. It is scaring motor cycle manufacturers, college presidents, retailers, car dealers, and even coffee shop executives. All of these people and more are waking up to the Dodd …
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 …
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 …
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.” …
