by Bill Scher | Apr 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
GOP Opposition To Wall Street Reform Begins To Crack GOP filibusters again, trying to further weaken consumer protections. W. Post: "Despite the continued blockade, several Republicans acknowledged that they will probably allow formal debate to begin soon. But they...
by Sam Pizzigati | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
The Great Recession, new research shows, has left wealth in the United States even more concentrated at America's economic summit. Average American households have been riding an economic roller coaster over the last quarter century. The stock market has boomed and...
by Zach Carter | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
10:00 Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein won't appear before Levin's committee until this afternoon, but his written testimony is here: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=c5099cfc-f6f9-41cb-ad11-aac3dab82fe0 So is that of...
by Bill Scher | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
Today at the Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy hosted by Campaign for America's Future... Can We Have A Debate? Dean Baker sees the White House debt commission trying to impose a false consensus": These...
by Bill Scher | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
This morning, the White House debt commission convened and largely presented a skewed picture of America's finances, with much scapegoating of Social Security and Medicare. This afternoon, Campaign for America's Future convened top economic experts to offer...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
China and the United States have both engaged in economic stimulus plans. This provides an opportunity to compare, and hopefully to learn. China's stimulus brought them through the economic crisis, even as they lost some exports because of the slowdown. They made the...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog
According to Asia News, In its World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund says only a new Chinese monetary policy can guarantee a global economic recovery. This is a characterization (dated April 22) of the IMF's semi-annual World Economic Outlook, which...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog, Economy
The following was originally published by Politico This spring, much of Washington is afflicted with deficit allergies. The Senate had to break a filibuster just to pass a one-month extension of unemployment insurance without “paying for it.” House Blue...
by Bill Scher | Apr 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
GOP (+1 Dem) Filibusters Wall Street Reform After GOP blocks consideration of Wall Street reform, Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid to continue hold cloture votes to pressure Republicans. The Hill: "A senior Democratic aide said Reid would schedule votes to end a Republican...
by Zach Carter | Apr 27, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
Last night, Senate Republicans proved beyond any doubt that when it comes to the economy, they stand with Wall Street and against everybody else. Joined by lone Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Republicans successfully filibustered the procedural technicality of...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 26, 2010 | Blog
This may be the single biggest lie in modern American history: "Most Republicans want a bill," said Sen. Richard Shelby, "but they want a substantive bill." We've criticized the Democrats plenty of times on the issue of financial reform, and the Dodd bill isn't...
by Bill Scher | Apr 26, 2010 | Blog
Today at the Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy hosted by Campaign for America's Future... Whose Commission Is This?: Roger Hickey flags that the White House deficit commission is working directly with chief...
by Bill Scher | Apr 26, 2010 | Blog
The following is part of the “Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck The Economy." Before the White House deficit commission meets for the first time tomorrow, the two co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson gave a preview...
by Zach Carter | Apr 26, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
Last week, Larry Summers, the top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, gave a startlingly dishonest interview with PBS Newshour's Jeffrey Brown. When asked directly why the White House was not pushing to break up the nation's largest banking behemoths, Summers...
by Bill Scher | Apr 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
"The Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy" continues, with Roger Hickey warning about this week's Pete Peterson-sponsored "Fiscal Summit": "This summit is designed to st
by Dave Johnson | Apr 26, 2010 | Blog
A return to Eisenhower-era 90% top tax rates helps fix our economy in several ways: 1) It makes it take longer to end up with a fortune. In fact it makes people build andearn a fortune, instead of shooting for quick windfalls. This forces long-term thinking and...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 25, 2010 | Blog
A return to Eisenhower-era 90% top tax rates helps fix our economy in several ways: 1) It makes it take longer to end up with a fortune. In fact it makes people build and earn a fortune, instead of shooting for quick windfalls. This forces long-term thinking and...
by Sam Pizzigati | Apr 25, 2010 | Blog
Some Americans get all bent out of shape when they hear someone label the United States a 'plutocracy.' But if we have an honest-to-goodness democracy, where the people really rule, then how can we explain Goldman Sachs? The outsized political role of Goldman Sachs,...
by Roger Hickey | Apr 24, 2010 | Blog
On Wednesday Wall Street multibillionaire Peter G. Peterson, who has pledged to spend a billion dollars to panic Americans about deficits in order to get them to slash Social Security and Medicare, is conducting a “Fiscal Summit” in Washington featuring many of the...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 23, 2010 | Blog
The Senate Budget Committee nearly voted to break up Wall Street's biggest banks. But four Democrats helped pro-Wall Street Republicans kill an amendment from Bernie Sanders that would "require the divestment of any financial institution the failure of which would...
by Bill Scher | Apr 23, 2010 | Blog
Today at the Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy hosted by Campaign for America's Future... There Are No Greedy Geezers: Former members of the 1982 National Commission on Social Security Reform Eric Kingson,...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 23, 2010 | Blog
How, many people have asked since news broke about Bernie Madoff's $50 billion ponzi scheme, could regulators have let such a blatant criminal slip through their fingers? We know, now. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the sheriff of the financial industry,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 23, 2010 | Blog
Most discussions about addressing the country's budget deficit essentially leave out a $1.1 trillion slice of the federal government. That's the size of the federal government's "tax expenditures" in fiscal year 2009, based on calculations in a new Citizens for Tax...
by Zach Carter | Apr 23, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
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,...
by Bill Scher | Apr 23, 2010 | Uncategorized
"The Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy" continues, with Peterson Foundation CEO David Walker confronted on video. Will GOP Filibuster Wall Street Reform On Monday? Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid schedules a...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
Conservatives just hate Europe. They think the US should be less like Europe. So following along with this there was a big headline over at the conservative website Drudge Report the other day: "Even Obama's New $100 bill looks European". Here's the thing. The...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog, Making it in America
This morning I watched a live webcast of a Senate hearing, titled, Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy to Examine Effect of China Currency Practices on American Manufacturing. The details of the hearing as well as an archive of the webcast are available at...
by Bill Scher | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
by Richard Eskow | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
If you've ever wondered what the phrase "the sound of silence" means, you should've been listening when the President invited "the titans of industry" to join him in promoting financial reform this morning. The President's speech walked a fine line between vision and...
by Zach Carter | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
President Barack Obama identified five major problems on Wall Street in his speech at Cooper Union today. Unfortunately, the solutions he has proposed to these problems either will not work, or are not included in the legislation that passed the Senate Banking...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
It's come to this. Conservative thought has degenerated to the "Crazy Chicken Lady" school of reform. I kid you not. Meet Nevada's GOP candidate, Sue Lowden — a/k/a "The Crazy Chicken Lady." This is at least a few days old by now, but that she's actually...
by Eric Lotke | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog, Making it in America
Today the Senate Banking Committee is holding a hearing to examine “the impact of China’s exchange rate practices on U.S. manufacturing” Many experts will testify. I offer some pictures that might help. 1. Is China manipulating its currency? Yes: Source: Yuan. Broad...
by Zach Carter | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
Despite strong rhetoric against aggressive Wall Street lobbying and deceptive Republican attacks, President Barack Obama appears ready to declare victory on a tepid and ineffective financial reform bill. The aims Obama outlined in his April 22 Cooper Union speech are...
by Mary Bottari | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog
The financial services reform bill will be debated in the Senate next week. The great test for the bill will be what it does to rein in Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street institution famously described by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi as “a vampire squid jamming...
by Bill Scher | Apr 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
"The Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy" continues. VAT warnings, Social Security scapegoating, military pork and more. Derivatives Crackdown Clears Committee Ag committee passes tough derivatives bill. One...
by Bill Scher | Apr 21, 2010 | Blog
Today at the Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy hosted by Campaign for America's Future... Can We See The Debt Commission?: Rep. John Conyers demands that the President's newly formed debt commission hold...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 21, 2010 | Blog
Tomorrow President Obama will return to Cooper Union in New York, where he gave a speech on financial reform as a candidate two years ago. We're told that his advisors want him to "go big" in his speech, as he did when he addressed a joint session of Congress on...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 21, 2010 | Blog
Finance officials from the G20 countries are meeting for three days beginning tomorrow. China's currency manipulation is one of the top items on the agenda because it is hurting the entire world, not just the United States. The currency is undervalued by as much as...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 21, 2010 | Blog, Economy
This post is part of the two-week long Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility for People Who Did Not Wreck the Economy, hosted by Campaign for America's Future. The drumbeat about deficits has reached deafening levels. The president warns about "out of...
by Bill Scher | Apr 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
Can We Toughen Up Wall Street Reform? W. Post's Harold Meyerson holds up Sen/ Blanche Lincoln's derivatives bill as the test of true reform, questions WH commitment: "[Sec. Geithner] has not embraced Lincoln's bill, and some senators fear he will craft a bill with...
