Thursday the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 passed the Senate and soon will be signed into law. The reaction has been mixed as you might suspect but the bigger issue seems to be the same stale rhetoric is being used even after all we have been through.
Posts Tagged ‘bailout’
Too big for shallow debate
Friday, July 16th, 2010Looking foolish
Friday, June 4th, 2010When the current Administration took over in 2009 we praised its realistic analysis of economic conditions. President Obama talked frankly about the tough conditions we were experiencing and resisted pouncing on each positive bit of news as sign of a turnaround even though his opponents would blame him for each down tick in the markets.
It was refreshing as the previous administration’s economic team were tossing around rosy scenarios up until the day they asked taxpayers for a $700 billion bailout of the financial system; or else.
The real cost of the bailout: it is not just TARP
Thursday, April 1st, 2010Since we first became aware of the credit and bank solvency crisis stemming from the subprime crisis back in the summer of 2007 we have noted the many efforts of the Federal Reserve to prop up the struggling banking industry. And when the whole house of cards blew up on Sept. 15, 2008 we reminded people that this was not a new crisis.
Since then we have pointed out that the fateful day in the fall of 2008 when our financial leaders at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department chose not to bailout Lehman Brothers, was not that the beginning of the credit crisis, just the day it could no longer be ignored.
LaSalle Street defends itself
Thursday, April 1st, 2010Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley describes the recent economic crisis as more of a restructuring than a recession and wants to “position the city of Chicago to reap the benefits of the better economic times to come.” To do that he has called on leaders of Chicago’s financial trading industry. Daley convened business leaders at CME Group’s headquarters on March 25 to discuss ways the city can continue to help support and grow the industry.
The press conference included a lot of backslapping and a warning that the industry was portable and could be at risk if it was put at a regulatory disadvantage.
Forex rule pushback
Friday, February 26th, 2010One of our contacts in the forex industry forwarded me a note with a link to the comment letters on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rule proposal limiting leverage for retail forex traders to 10-1. There are nearly 5,000 comments and from the couple of dozen I saw, people are hopping mad.
Pay to play part infinity
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010The Washington Post reported today that commercial banks and investment institutions are shifting their political donations towards Republicans. Apparently Democrats were garnering two-thirds of those donations as recently as the beginning of 2009 and now that is shifting to an even split despite the Democratic majority.
This can sarcastically be placed under “shocking news” of the day category but there is something even more cynical at play in this world of no shame.
When Regulators go rogue
Friday, January 15th, 2010The credit crisis and various financial scandals of recent years have changed the landscape for U.S. regulators. In was strong regulation and out was warm and fuzzy talk of public/private cooperation. In also was supposed to be interagency cooperation.
While one of the five key objectives of the Obama Administration’s audacious regulatory overhaul proposal was to Establish comprehensive supervision of financial markets and it set as a goal harmonizing regulatory regimes to prevent regulatory arbitrage and gaps in coverage, that hasn’t necessarily been followed through on.
Case in point is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (Finra) proposed Rule 2380. In its original form the rule would have limited the leverage broker/dealers could offer their customer in forex trading to 1.5-1. That is the customer would have to put up about $67,000 for a standard $100,000 forex position.
More curiosity, less arrogance is what is needed
Monday, December 28th, 2009Blogger Felix Salmon tossed out the subject of whether a PhD in Financial Journalism should be created, apparently in light of the poor job done by the media in covering the credit crisis. Actually he notes that an ex Lehman Bros. executive is trying to create such an education track and Salmon threw it out for public discussion and it has been bandied about by media based chat rooms.
Economic meltdown coming into focus
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009The Nation recently published an interesting article on the financial crisis of 2008 citing the head of the obscure regulatory body the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), John Dugan, as one of the prime architects of our current economic woes.
I’ve read several lists citing people to blame for last year’s financial turmoil and Mr. Dugan, if cited, certainly wouldn’t be on the list of usual suspects.
Thankful I'm not to blame
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009As I wrap up some loose ends going into the long holiday weekend, I noticed that we have not commented here yet on last week’s partisan jousting over who is to blame for the financial mess we find ourselves in.
Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas blamed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a major role in creating the problem when he was the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Geithner shot back, ”What I can’t take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you’ve bequeathed this country.”
