As voluntary mortgage modifications have failed to keep pace with foreclosures, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that it might be time to bring back the stick of bankruptcy reform. That proposal, which would empower homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy, was More…
Yesterday, we ran a piece pointing out that there’s really nothing stopping lawmakers, congressional staffers and other government employees from using the non-public information they gather from their daily duties to guide investments and reap enormous profits. Although a House bill — the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge More…
Turning the popular concept of partisan politics on its head, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) this month reintroduced legislation to legalize some Internet gambling, which has been banned since 2006. The New York Times ran a short piece today on the proposal, which would empower federal regulators to license More…
Following up on our piece this month about how payday lenders have found a friend in Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) — who’s pushing legislation that caps interest rates on those loans at nearly 400 percent — it comes as little surprise that the pawnshop industry, among the largest sub-sets More…
That’s the natural question to ask after perusing the first quarter campaign finance report that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, filed last week.
Employees of Fidelity, the world’s largest mutual fund company, gave Frank $29,000 during the first three months of this year More…
Wasting no time, the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to mark up its credit card reform bill next Wednesday, according to a Democratic aide. Sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the bill includes a slew of new consumer protections, giving card users longer notice of imminent rate increases More…
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) took a podium before a banking convention this morning with the clear goal of alleviating industry fears over the Democrats’ plans to reform the finance industry this year.
But Frank also spent a good deal of his floor time dispelling the notion that the housing More…
As House leaders are debating a bill to apply a 90 percent tax on controversial bonuses paid by bailout recipients like AIG, at least one Democrat has already found a gaping loophole.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said the bill might rein in More…
Here’s Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) last week criticizing the banks — and the lawmakers beholden to the banks — after controversial changes were made to a House housing bill: “These guys rule this place,” she said of the finance industry, according to The Associated Press.
And here’s The New More…
Related to our story yesterday about Wall Street firms acting only in the interests of shareholders, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) last week asked eight bank executives appearing before his House Financial Services Committee why corporate CEOs require enormous bonuses to do their jobs well.
If, in good times, you
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