Obama Signals More Bank Reform
Obama calls Wall Street reform "unfinished." Bloomberg: "In an interview to be aired today on American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program, Obama said an 'unfinished piece of business' is to address banks that 'take big risks because the profit incentive and the bonus incentive is there for them.' The problem is 'going to require us looking at additional steps we can take,' Obama said, without specifying what those might be."
"President Obama sounds ready to take on the big banks" says W. Post's Zachary Goldfarb: "The president’s comments indicated that he might be looking to pursue policies in his final two years that take aim at Wall Street, either acting through existing regulations or potentially through new legislation ... How Obama might achieve further reforms to Wall Street is not clear. He has modest influence over the financial regulatory process through the Treasury Department’s oversight of coordinated rule-making among agencies such as the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He can use moral suasion and his convening power as president."
Crony Capitalist Court
"Crony Capitalism Has No Place in the Supreme Court" writes National Journal's Norm Ornstein: "...I keep reading and rereading the Constitution and I still can't find the word 'corporation.' This Supreme Court, with its new form of crony capitalism, seems to see the words everywhere."
"Be careful what you wish for" NYT's Dorothy Samuels tells corporations: "Among the galling aspects of Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby contraception case is that it made a muddle of the longstanding concept of 'corporate separateness.' The notion that a corporation is a distinct entity with its own rights and obligations separate from those of its shareholders is the foundational principle of corporate law ... If owners indicate that they are not entirely separate from their corporation — by denying corporation employees’ birth control coverage based on their personal religious beliefs — the case could be made in future state-court litigation that they have waived their right to be shielded from responsibility for corporate financial liabilities."
Hillary Tries To Navigate Populist Wave
"Hillary Has a Plan to Attack Inequality Without Alienating Her Corporate Donors" says TNR's Noam Scheiber: "...we’re beginning to see the contours of a strategy, which was on display Monday during Clinton’s appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Asked about inequality during a Q&A, Clinton spent the bulk of her four-minute response addressing the plight of workers who’ve been squeezed over the last several years ... Clinton is savvy enough to recognize that 'inequality' encompasses two separate but related issues. The first is the economic stagnation afflicting people in the middle and bottom ... The second is the rapidly improving fortunes of the ultra-rich ... Clinton is able to deliver a mostly compelling response to questions about inequality by focusing on [the former], and mostly leaving the uncomfortable-sounding plutocracy stuff unmentioned."
Bloomberg's Mark Halperin floats Al Gore 2016. TPM: " Appearing on 'Morning Joe,"' Halperin argued that Gore is a clear alternative to Hillary Clinton ... The rest of the 'Morning Joe' crew then spent several minutes pressing Halperin to reveal whether he had any conversations with people close to Gore ... 'People besides me who know Gore better than I do say that there is a vacuum right now and that she is extraordinarily vulnerable ... to somebody who's got what Gore has.'"
China Moves On Currency
"China Takes Step Toward Freeing Currency from State Control" reports NYT: "China has permitted banks to freely set their own exchange rates for the renminbi against the dollar in over-the-counter transactions — another step toward freeing the exchange rate from government control ... But the wholesale market that the banks trade in must still abide by the midpoint guidance rate. Because that primary market is an enormous source of currency supply and demand, posting around $15 billion in transactions every day, it will continue to exercise a strong influence on the consumer market."
Some multinational corporations side with China over Hong Kong's democracy movement. W. Post's Harold Meyerson: "The big four multinational accounting firms — Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers — took out ads in three Hong Kong papers saying that they are 'opposed' to the democracy movement and complaining that the demonstrations are a threat to the rule of law ... For years, American businesses argued that bringing capitalism to China would transform that nation into a democracy. In fact, it seems to have had the opposite effect: U.S. and other Western companies doing business in China have become defenders of authoritarianism."
Breakfast Sides
Some state gas taxes are going up. The Hill: "New Hampshire, Maryland and Indiana all implemented increases in their state gas taxes on July 1 ... New Hampshire’s levy went up four cents-per-gallon and Maryland’s increased by a half of a penny per gallon. Indiana, meanwhile, switched from a flat rate to a percentage of the monthly gasoline price average in the state ... Transportation advocates have pointed to states that have increased their gas taxes to argue that a federal hike would be more politically viable than most observers believe."
Sen. Manchin tries to help coal in the Ex-Im Bank bill. The Hill: "The bank revised its environmental procedures in December to prevent any financing for power plants unless they adopt carbon capture technology. Exceptions were provided for the world's poorest countries, and the revision was in response to administration-wide efforts to combat climate change. Manchin's bill, which has yet to be released, would block the restriction..."
