"Words that make actions speak louder."
Reasonable people can disagree about the merits of the Wall Street bailout. But you can’t reasonably believe we should use taxpayer money to bail out irresponsible bankers and do nothing to insist bankers start behaving responsibly. As my colleague Zach Carter just reported, there are 69 House members and 21 Senators who unreasonably believe just […]
A full 90 members of Congress who voted to bailout Wall Street in 2008 failed to support financial reform reining in the banks that drove our economy off a cliff. But when you examine campaign contribution data, it’s really no surprise that these particular lawmakers voted to mortgage our economic future to Big Finance: This […]
What happened to Moody’s is what happens to every “agent” who thinks he can serve two masters. The sad thing is that it keeps happening, even though we’ve seen this movie before. Credit rating agencies are supposed to monitor debt that’s issued by financial institutions and governments. It’s their job to protect investors from purchasing […]
Congressional Republicans released their “Pledge for America” today with a press event at a Virginia hardware store, and a hardware store was definitely the right choice: If these policies ever take effect you’re going to get screwed. It was slightly amusing to see these wealthy tribunes in their pricey business-casual clothing, dressed to look the […]
This Saturday, progressives will be marching on Washington for the One Nation Working Together rally. Should you bother? The New York Times reports: Predicting a crowd of more than 100,000, some 300 liberal groups — including the N.A.A.C.P., the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the National Council of La Raza and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — […]
Now that Larry Summers is leaving, the President has a decision to make. His choice of a replacement will send a signal about the next two years of economic policy. That signal can restore consumer confidence and reinvigorate the electorate, or it can lead to even more discouragement and despair. Today unnamed Administration officials floated […]
Over at bloggingheads, my CAF colleague Bill Scher discusses the new international banking standards with Conn Carroll, a conservative blogger for The Heritage Foundation. Carroll actually agrees with a lot of what I have to say about Basel III, but I he draws conclusions from my post that overemphasize the role of regulation and ignore […]
ABC News is reporting that President Barack Obama will appoint Elizabeth Warren to a “special advisory” position to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We don’t know the details, but so far, this seems very suspicious. As I wrote yesterday, Obama has several options for getting Warren into the CFPB slot if he wants […]
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is grasping at straws to block Elizabeth Warren’s nomination as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He’s making a fool of himself, and hurting his party’s political prospects for November. Dodd’s latest foray into bank lobby dirty work came today in a series of inflammatory comments to reporters. Dodd made […]
1:20 All done. Lesson: Break Up The Banks. ****************** 1:00 Most of the discussion surrounding too-big-to-fail at this hearing has dealt with a relatively short period in time: the decision to bailout a firm, and what happened right after that decision. This is an important part of the issue, but it’s by no means the […]