by Richard Eskow | May 20, 2010 | Blog
Turning conflicts of interest into "win/win" situations can be a form of brilliance. Pretending those conflicts don't exist can be a form of indifference. That's why it was troubling to hear the President say today that financial reform "is not a zero sum game where...
by Zach Carter | May 20, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
The most courageous vote yesterday in the Senate was cast by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who refused to let the Senate sign-off on an unnecessarily weak Wall Street reform bill. Cantwell has been trying to fix a fatal loophole in the derivatives language which...
by Dave Johnson | May 20, 2010 | Blog
Monday the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) begins in Beijing. (See the Treasury Dept fact sheet on the S&ED.) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will attend, and meet with their counterparts. As I have been writing...
by Richard Eskow | May 19, 2010 | Blog
Things have been moving pretty quickly lately in the interlocking worlds of politics and financial reform. While there is a lot we don't know, here are three statements we can probably make with a high degree of certainty: 1. If the banks had been on the ballot...
by Zach Carter | May 19, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
UPDATE 1:00 P.M Dodd just tried to move on amendments by Sens. Snowe, R-Maine, Landrieau, D-La., Vitter, R-La., and Whitehouse, D-R.I., and then proceed to the cloture vote. Sen. Carl Levin objected, presumably because his amendment to implement the Volcker Rule was...
by Zach Carter | May 19, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
Few realized it at the time, but Senator Chris Dodd's political career ended on June 12, 2008. That day, Portfolio magazine published its blistering expose on Countrywide Financial's "Friends of Angelo" program, naming the Democrat from Connecticut as one of the top...