regulatory reform

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who’s testifying this morning before the House Financial Services Committee on legislation empowering the White House to take over Wall Street firms when their failure threatens the finance system on the whole, just made a curious claim. Asked by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) whether the legislation grants the White House the [...]

Different bill; same concerns.
House Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday granting the White House broad new authority to bail out investment houses and other non-banks when their potential collapse is a threat to the larger financial system. But while the bill goes far beyond a similar White House proposal in terms of protecting taxpayers, Rep. Brad Sherman [...]

Well, this should come as no surprise: Financial industry groups already are gearing up to fend off a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would regulate mortgages, credit cards, and other kinds of consumer lending. The idea was a key part of the financial system overhaul that President Obama outlined on Wednesday.
Although Obama called for [...]

At The Wall Street Journal, Gerald Seib lays out President Obama’s biggest problem as he unveils his proposals for regulatory overhaul today — the “Goldilocks” dilemma. The plan is likely to draw fire from both Obama’s right and left, Seib says.
The Federal Reserve will get more powers to oversee big financial institutions, large firms will [...]

Here’s something to keep in mind as President Obama unveils his financial regulatory overhaul plan today. Baseline Scenario helpfully offers a list of questions that the administration will either address or avoid as it rolls out its proposals. How Obama frames the debate will play a big part in how successfully the plan goes forward, [...]

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones applauds the idea of a single bank regulator, a proposal The Washington Post reports is now under consideration by the Obama administration.
For what it’s worth, I’d say that having a single bank regulator is long overdue.  The current structure not only doesn’t make sense, but allows banks to shop around [...]

Mike’s excellent story today about the weak reforms of the payday lending industry proposed by onetime industry foe Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) details a disappointing setback for efforts to curb the insidious practice of charging down-on-their-luck consumers loan shark rates for short-term loans.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke drew some headlines Tuesday when he said in a speech that it’s time to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system, and to appoint a powerful new regulator to oversee powerful financial institutions.
It’s something housing and community advocates also have been pushing — especially as they tried in vain for years [...]