There are two consumer protection amendments getting serious attention on the Senate floor this week, one of them positive, one of them incredibly destructive. Both revolve around the concept of "preemption"—the ability of federal regulators to block states from enforcing laws aginst banks that operate within their borders. more »
The Senate approved an amendment from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would subject the Federal Reserve's bailout operations to a one-time audit. The vote was 96 - 0 in favor of the measure. more »
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission examines the collapse of Bear Stearns, the Wall Street brokerage firm that ended up being merged with JPMorgan Chase during the heart of the financial crisis. Bear Stearns argues that unsubstantiated rumors precipitated its collapse, but commissioners help make the case that it was Bear Stearns own business practices, forged in a deregulated environment, that laid it low.
Despite all of the attention heaped on the Treasury Department and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Federal Reserve served as the chief bank bailout engine in the U.S. economy during the Great Financial Crash of 2008, and remains the government's top bailout agency today. more »
Sarah Palin's broadside against the Obama administration's Wall Street reform proposal is an interesting study in, well, hackery. One the one hand, her latest Facebook post is a disingenuous smear, loaded with outright lies. On the other, she's kind of onto something, in her own horrible way. more »
Tuesday's hearing on Lehman Brothers' now infamous Repo 105 scam was only tangentially related to the megabank's accounting deceptions and subsequent collapse. That story is simple: Lehman almost certainly committed fraud, regulators failed to stop it, and many of the people who screwed up under President George W. Bush inexplicably remain in power under President Barack Obama. more »
The Hill published a truly outrageous op-ed yesterday by a payday lending front group, and the publication didn't bother to tell readers it was providing a platform for a predatory hatchet-woman. more »
The next few weeks will be crucial for the effort to rein in the Wall Street casino and hold the bailout barons accountable. Here's a list of major Wall Street reform rallies taking place around the country in the coming weeks. With the Wall Street bill going to the Senate floor, make sure your voice is heard! more »
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