Category: Financial Reform

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 […]

240 former legislators, bank committee staffers, and Treasury officials deployed to lobby. $600 million spent in lobbying, trade association activity and political contributions since March 2008. And that is just from the six biggest banks. The entire financial industry is spending an estimated $1.4 million a day, hiring 70 former members of Congress to make […]

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 […]

Word is circulating through Capitol Hill right now that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has agreed to back a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve, paving the way for the almost certain passage of the measure. This is a major victory for serious Wall Street reform, and evidence of the mounting momentum to hold big banks […]

Now that the ideological defense of Wall Street behavior has collapsed, brought down by the wreckage of deregulation, bankers and lobbyists are pursuing a new strategy: fighting the democratic process itself. They’re suggesting that this issue is a little too complicated for public scrutiny, and that what’s really needed is for wiser heads to sort […]

J.P. Morgan Chase, America’s largest warehouse of arrogant financial elites, has issued yet another deceptive lobbyist smear in the guise of an “analyst report.” Yesterday, the megabank’s Chief Economist James Glassman launched a broadside against Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) for having the audacity to publicly investigate allegations of financial fraud at Goldman Sachs. Glassman—a top […]

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 . But unlike the Treasury, the Fed isn’t subject to basic government transparency requirements—we know almost nothing about the trillions of dollars the […]