derivatives

As we noted on Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee is in the midst of tackling financial regulatory reform, which has brought out the lobbyists in full force. Here’s just a small taste of the action so far: American Banker is reporting that the committee is close to carving out an exemption for community banks [...]

Now that it looks like Congress will create a commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis after all, the big question is who will be chosen for the heavy lifting. Pack an investigative commission with people who aren’t likely to aggressively dig into what went wrong, and you haven’t really done much, beyond [...]

President Obama’s top economic adviser on Thursday defended his role as a leading force behind the sweeping deregulation of the finance industry a decade ago, which many experts consider to be a cause of the current economic crisis.
Appearing before hundreds of business officials in Washington, Larry Summers said the finance industry has evolved both enormously [...]

Andrew Ross Sorkin takes a shot at explaining why we have to pay those AIG bonuses today in The New York Times. Sorkin explains that he knows it’s not a popular view to even try to justify the bonuses — but it’s the new reality of  how the business world works in post-bailout America.
And it’s [...]

The growing furor over AIG executive bonus payments has President Obama concerned enough that he’s even speaking out against them now, The New York Times reports. Obama told small business owners at the White House today that he’s directing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to use every legal avenue possible to block payment of those bonuses.
Mr. [...]

As the economy sinks toward recession and increased regulation gains support, lawmakers aim to tackle the elusive, unregulated derivatives market, with a focus on credit default swaps.