Obama to Sign Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Bill Into Law Today

In a ceremony at the White House today, surrounded by policy experts and bankers, President Obama will sign the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill into law.

The final bill, more than 2,300 pages in length, directs regulators to create 533 new rules — applying to everything from debit cards More…

Senate Passes Landmark Financial Reform Bill

This afternoon, the U.S. Senate passed a sweeping financial regulatory reform bill, overhauling the regulation of everything from the biggest banks to consumer financial products to exotic instruments like credit-default swaps to the derivatives used by farmers. The bill passed 60 to 39.

[Congress1] Earlier on Thursday, Republicans Olympia More…

Four in Five Americans See FinReg as Ineffectual

Bloomberg polls the masses, and finds that they do not think much of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill. Some headline numbers:

• Nearly four in five say “they have just a little or no confidence that the measure … will prevent or significantly soften a future crisis.”
• Three

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FinReg Update

I’ve been focusing intently on the jobs situation and unemployment extension bill this week, but here’s a roundup of the need-to-know news on the Wall Street or financial regulatory reform bill. The House passed the conference committee version with bipartisan support, and now it only needs Senate approval to More…

Conference Committee Revises FinReg; Brown Still Won’t Commit

Yesterday evening, the conference committee to combine the Senate and House versions of financial regulatory reform reconvened. The committee dropped a $19 billion tax on big banks and hedge funds, inserted by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to make the bill deficit-neutral and to charge the companies most responsible for More…

FinReg Lacks Votes for Passage

As of now, Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill has 93 confirmed votes on party lines. Just a few decisive senators remain. Yesterday, Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), a former no — meaning he voted against the Senate bill, before it was reconciled with the House version — said he More…

FinReg Provisions to Watch

The best explanatory writing about the final financial regulatory reform bill will happen this weekend, rather than today. Why? Last night, the members of Congress convened did much of their negotiating behind closed doors, and made dozens of minute changes to complicated provisions up until 5:39 a.m., and reporters don’t More…

FinReg Complete, and Banks Stuck With $20 Billion Tab for Implementation

It is over. After a marathon 20-hour session, the conference committee reconciling the House and Senate versions of financial regulatory reform completed their work. All Democrats and no Republicans voted for the final package, and conference committee wrapped up around 5:40 a.m.

A version of both the Volcker Rule More…

Banks on the Hook for Fannie and Freddie?

Politico’s Morning Money reports that a proposal penciled — literally — into the financial regulatory reform bill in conference committee last night might put big Wall Street banks on the hook for the cost of winding down Fannie and Freddie — a cost that could reach into the hundreds More…

Aid to the Unemployed Facing Foreclosure: Too Little, Too Late?

Sandra Monroe-Olcott of the Montclare neighborhood of Chicago is in the same position as hundreds of thousands of Americans. She lost her job on April 1, 2008. She applied for unemployment insurance — $804 every two weeks — and immediately started searching for another position. Her husband, now 74, had More…