The Washington Independent

Bailout

Only 16 Executives Changed Companies After Pay Caps

By | 03.23.10 | 4:22 pm

After months of whining, a resignation letter delivered on the op-ed page of The New York Times and warnings of a massive corporate brain drain, only 16 executives have left bailed-out companies amid pay caps in the past two years. Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg set pay More…

The Significance of Last Night’s Vote on Finance Reform

By | 03.23.10 | 12:57 pm

Following last night’s speedy passage of sweeping finance reforms in the Senate Banking Committee, much of the focus has been on the Republicans’ strategy to take the fight over the bill to the Senate floor, rather than pushing amendments during what was supposed to have been a long-drawn More…

Senate Banking Panel Passes Sweeping Finance Reforms

By | 03.22.10 | 6:20 pm

They weren’t kidding when they said this evening’s markup of finance reform legislation would be a speedy affair.

The Banking Committee took less than an hour to pass the bill — along a party-line vote of 13 to 10 — and send it to the chamber floor. The quick process More…

Feinberg to Look Back at (But Not Claw Back) Bank Bonuses

By | 03.22.10 | 5:57 pm

Now that there are only a few banks left that haven’t repaid their TARP funds — and many did so to get out from under Pay Czar Ken Feinberg’s pay-restricting thumb — and bonus season has passed, Feinberg has just a little time on his hands. The Wall Street Journal More…

More Than Half of Republicans Don’t Believe Banks Are to Blame for the Financial Crisis

By | 03.22.10 | 5:36 pm

A new ABC News poll asks what Americans have to say about the newest economic villains — banks — as they return to profitability well ahead of America’s burgeoning unemployed population. There are few surprises there: The vast majority of people don’t believe the banks have done enough More…

Quick Senate Markup of Financial Reforms?

By | 03.22.10 | 4:59 pm

It’s looking that way.

Observers had expected a drawn-out battle over Senate Democrats’ plans to overhaul the nations financial regulations in favor of more oversight and consumer protection. The Senate bill is being marked up in the Banking Committee beginning at 5 p.m. today.

But sources on and off Capitol More…

Five More Ways Obama’s Mortgage Modification Program Fails Americans

By | 03.19.10 | 3:50 pm

For an administration that once said that it would pay more attention to Main Street than Wall Street, the failure of the its signature initiative for Main Streeters — the mortgage modification program — should be a wake-up call that it’s far past time to pay attention to the problems More…

Five Reasons to Strengthen Financial Regulation From the Lehman Report

By | 03.17.10 | 1:57 pm

The extraordinarily comprehensive bankruptcy examiner’s report on Lehman Brothers is the gift that keeps on giving to financial reform advocates, above and beyond even the revelations that Lehman was cooking its books and no one noticed for years. According to Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism, the report is More…

Banks Reduced Lending in January Even as They Promised More Loans

By | 03.16.10 | 12:38 pm

A new report from the Treasury Department — the last of its kind — shows that despite all the regulation-avoiding PR campaigns, new loans at the nine largest banks that still owe bailout funds to the government dropped by 35 percent in January.

The nine banks

More…

Warren Goes After Treasury Official Over ‘Too Big To Fail’

By | 03.04.10 | 3:56 pm

It was a tough day to be Herbert Allison. The Treasury official charged with monitoring the $700 billion Wall Street bailout appeared Thursday before the congressional panel created for that same purpose — and was promptly lashed by committee members for evading many of the questions they hurled his way. More…