regulation

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Consumer Advocates Fear Missed Opportunity for Bank Reform

What seemed like a clear path ahead was upstaged by the health care battle.


Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Mulls Its Own Role in Regulatory Reform

The 10 members of the panel named by Congress to investigate the causes of last year’s economic implosion appear to be wrestling with their role in this year’s push for financial industry regulatory reform, judging from their statements at today’s first hearing.
Brooksley Born, who fought unsuccessfully to regulate derivatives during her years at the helm [...]


A Warning to Wall Street; A Plea to Congress

Appearing on Wall Street today, President Obama accused some of the nation’s financial institutions of “misreading” the economy’s nascent recovery, and urged Congress to pass strict new banking regulations to prevent the industry’s “reckless behavior” from spurring another economic collapse.
We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess that [...]


Geithner: Markets Are Too Important to Be Governed by Markets

Here’s the money quote from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, interviewed Monday by CNN about the role of government in regulating Wall Street:
The financial markets are too important to the economy to be left to the markets alone. You need a strong framework of regulations, a much stronger framework than we had.


White House to Unveil Plan to Expand Regulation of Banking Industry

The Washington Post reports that President Obama today will roll out his plan to increase regulation of the financial system.
The plan seeks to overhaul the nation’s outdated system of financial regulations. Senior officials debated using a bulldozer to clear the way for fundamental reforms but decided instead to build within the shell of the existing [...]


Another Look at the Dems’ Tobacco Bill

The Democrats’ bill placing the tobacco industry under the oversight of the Food and Drug Administration is on its way to the White House, having passed the Senate today, and party leaders are patting themselves on the back for their accomplishment. (Some lawmakers, after all, have been pushing this concept for decades.)
But Paul Smalera, writing [...]


The Ultimate in Regional Protectionism

The Senate this morning is poised to vote on a historic bill empowering the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry for the first time. The proposal, approved by the House in April, is expected to pass, but not without opposition from Southern lawmakers hoping to protect their famously regional industry. And this [...]


U.S. May or May Not Establish a Single Banking Regulator

The Washington Post, this morning:
Senior administration officials are considering the creation of a single agency to regulate the banking industry, replacing a patchwork of agencies that failed to prevent banks from falling into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, sources said.
Bloomberg, today:
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank ruled out creating a single [...]


Remember, Maestro Means ‘Master’

There are plenty of noteworthy quotes in the Peter Baker piece on former President Bill Clinton in The New York Times Magazine, and the published interview transcript that accompanies it. So far, this strikes me as the noteworthiest; while addressing criticisms of his administration in light of recent financial failures, Clinton said:
Then there’s the argument [...]


‘The Era of Banking Secrecy is Over’

That’s perhaps the boldest declaration in the joint statement from G-20 world leaders meeting today in London.
The communiqué, which pledges $1.1 trillion in global stimulus spending and tighter supervision and regulation of the global economy, did not commit the leaders to another round of stimulus spending as President Obama wanted, nor cross-border financial regulation as [...]