"Words that make actions speak louder."
Thursday night’s passage of Wall Street reform by the U.S. Senate is an event to be celebrated, but several key issues remain in play as the House and Senate seek to iron out differences between their respective versions of the legislation. And while the final bill will provide regulators with important new tools to fight […]
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 prevents regulators from enforcing new rules on the secretive shadow markets […]
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 not included. This was an explicit attempt to weaken the bill and block […]
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 beneficiaries of the subprime kingpin’s political favors program. It’s too late for Dodd […]
Some version of Wall Street reform is going to pass the Senate this week. The question now is how strong that reform will be. There are still three crucial battles to be waged, all of which would significantly change the way Wall Street does business. We will not fix Wall Street with this round of […]
The top Republican fundraiser in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, just gave a preposterous speech on Wall Street reform in which he pushed the plan recently promoted recently by disgraced J.P. Morgan Economist James Glassman. Cornyn is opposing the use of a “resolution mechanism,” which he and other Republicans like Sen. John Ensign are […]
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. Over the past decade, state regulators tried […]
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. A stronger audit, sponsored by Reps. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, cleared the House in December. The Grayson-Paul bill would […]
Last week, Congress decided it would not confront Too Big To Fail, the single gravest threat to our collective financial security. But there are still several key Wall Street reforms worth fighting for—reforms that must be enacted before the next crisis hits. And fortunately, key Senators have introduced amendments dealing with each one. Blanche Lincoln’s […]
Late last night, the U.S. Senate rejected the single most important element of Wall Street reform by a vote of 33 to 61. The SAFE Banking Act would have forced the break-up of the nation’s six largestbanks, and dramatically reduced the political clout of America’s financial elite. The 61 votes against the measure are votes […]