Will GOP Block Wall Street Fix?
As the Senate turns to financial reform this week, the big question is whether any Republicans will join in, or whether the party will stick to its new political doctrine of obstruction.
As the Senate turns to financial reform this week, the big question is whether any Republicans will join in, or whether the party will stick to its new political doctrine of obstruction.
In the U.S. right now, some see robust growth, others a limping progress. Where Tim Geithner sees gentle waves, New York Times business reporter Gretchen Morgenson sees tsunamis.
While Social Security and Medicare may turn out to be inflationary, they are not 'bankrupting the nation' as most believe, including a Democratic Congress that cut Medicare spending with the recent health care bill.
Why exactly is Goldman permitted to be classified as a 'bank holding company,' enjoying all the benefits and access to government programs that such categorization entails without upholding its societal responsibility?
Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson are two of my favorite economic commentators, but when it comes to the issue of breaking up mega-banks, they take dramatically opposing positions.
When Greenspan fully exits public life, he should be recognized for what he neglected to do and his misdeeds that go far beyond sins of omission. Just ask the millions who are trying to claw back into the middle class.
Imagine if airline pilots only landed 70 percent of airplanes, crossing guards only protected 70 percent of students or if your bank only honored 70 percent of your checks. It would be a public scandal.
Secretive gold operations were a significant reason for the real estate bubble and market collapse in the US as interest rates were left too low for too long.
by Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger Next week, the debate over financial reform will begin in earnest when Congress returns from its Easter break...
Much of what Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner did in 2008 was presumably necessary. But the public has no way of knowing. The public doesn't even know who else the Fed has bailed out, or what entities it will bail out in the future.
The recent health care reform effort started out with a very low starting goal. That was a huge error. This list is more ambitious -- the way we should be thinking and striving for.
What secrets are hidden in the Federal Reserve's trillion-dollar shadow? Senators like Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg don't want us to know. They don't even want to know, themselves.
On March 19, Bloomberg won its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve for information that could expose which "too big to fail" banks in the United States are walking zombies and which banks were merely rotting.
Whatever the reasons, the Geithner Treasury Department has suddenly come out swinging. They're pugilists in pinstripes now. But while the rhetoric's encouraging, Geithner's record is cloudy at best.
History instructs that the "independence" of the regulator is beside the point. Consumer protection depends on altering the fundamental relationship between the buyers and sellers of financial products.
Does more regulation stop human urges like the excess at Lehman Brothers? You can try, as D.C. is trying now. But in the end, the only person who can stop ambition turning into something insidious is you.
Consumers need a strong, independent agency that does not have inherent conflict within its core mission statement.
Both the SEC and the NY Fed were monitoring Lehman on a day-to-day basis shortly after Bear's failure. They recognized that it had a massive hole in its balance sheet, yet took an inertial course of action.
As long as government continues to hog most of the available credit, it's going to be increasingly difficult--and sometimes nearly impossible--for most businesses and consumers to get their share of much needed funds.
Janet Yellen's confirmation should further cement the Phillips Curve philosophy held at the Fed, that inflation is engendered from too much prosperity and not from too much money creation.
Once upon a time, it seemed as if our leaders understood that "too big to fail" meant "too big to exist." But in Sen. Dodd's financial reform bill, the big banks won't be dismantled -- they'll be watched ... by a committee.