Category Archives: Politics

Bank of England Calls Bluff of Bankers Who Threaten to Depart UK to Avoid Taxes

The UK is providing a lesson the US badly needs to learn, that push comes to shove, regulators hold the whip, and have to be willing to use it when necessary. Given how intransigent the financial services industry has become, the time for discipline has come. Maybe some of them even want it secretly…. In […]

Bernanke Confirmation Headwinds Increasing

The party line is that Ben Bernanke’s confirmation for a second term as Fed chief is a shoe-in, although he might face an unseemly amount of roughing up, like having to step down briefly if the senators who plan to put a hold on his vote succeed in delaying it beyond the end of January. […]

“Greece – A Line in the Sand?”

By Bruce Krasting, a former foreign exchange and derivatives trader and hedge fund manager. On December 10th I raised the possibility of Greece breaking the connection with the Euro. On the likelihood of this black swan type of event happening I said, “This is not a high probability outcome.” A week later the possibility of […]

Sen. Merkley, Dem. on Banking Committee, to Vote Against Bernanke

This morning, Senator Jeff Merkley, a freshman Senator from Oregon, announced he would vote against Bernanke’s confirmation: Tomorrow, I will vote against confirming Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The reason, in short, is that as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke failed to recognize or remedy the factors that paved the road to this dark […]

Bernanke Stonewalls and Prevaricates in Response to Questions by Sen. Bunning

Senator Jim Bunning gave a long, detailed, specific, and very good list of questions to Fed chair Ben Bernanke, and Bunning has posted the resulting Q&A on his website. I find this a pretty remarkable document. While a certain amount of bureaucratic jousting is to be expected (ie, there is a level of artful dodging […]

Quelle Surprise! Banks See Meeting With Obama as a “PR Stunt” for Administration

We weren’t impressed by Obama’s supposedly tough rhetoric on bankers on 60 Minutes (it pales next to what FDR dished out in his 1933 inaugural address, and discourse was more elevated then than now). It was namby pamby at best. That limp-wristed effort to look more determined to Do Something to mask the fact that […]

Obama’s demand that fat cats lend is no ode to Samuelson

This is a guest post by Edward Harrison. There has been quite a lot of to-do about President Obama’s fat cat remarks and his meeting with bankers exhorting them to lend (which some attended via conference call only, ouch). Let me tie these events in with a few other themes into a comprehensive picture of […]

Guest Post: The Fed’s “Independence” Argument Is False

The House has passed a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. 79% of the American people support a full audit. In response, the Fed says that an audit would interfere with its “independence”. However, the Constitution does not empower a central bank. And Congress – which created the Federal Reserve in 1913 and which has […]

“Bankers Support Regulation? Au Contraire”

By Tim Duncan, Chairman of American Business Leaders for Financial Reform The Wall Street Journal tells us tonight that the banking industry has agreed to push for regulation after Monday’s White House meeting: Chief executives of the largest U.S. banks acknowledged Monday the “disconnect” between their expressed support for re-regulating financial markets and the work […]

“Obama’s Newfound Populism: All Hat, No Cattle”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. President Obama is taking a sharp, populist tone with Wall Street and scolding the ways of Washington. Once again, he is looking to the Senate to follow the House and pass a top legislative priority: sweeping financial regulatory reform. It […]

Guest Post: Larry Summers Is Like a Guy Who Yells That the Sun Really DOES Revolve Around the Earth and that the Current Orbit is Just a Temporary Aberration . . . and That If We Just Wait a Little While, “Everything Will Return to Normal”

Two leading White House economic advisors – Larry Summers and Christina Romer – are giving very different views on the economy. As Fox news summarizes: “Everybody agrees that the recession is over,” said Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council. “Of course not,” countered Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer in a separate […]

Yes, Obama is Getting Serious About Banks. He is Now Calling Them Bad Names!

Are we supposed to take this posturing seriously? The media is now peddling more and more banker-favoring narratives with a straight face. The Columbia Journalism Review described one last week, how a little Goldman Kabuki theater to appease the peasants was incorrectly depicted as a serious move: …the press way overplays what is essentially a […]

Harvard Suspends Construction of Larry Summers’ $1 Billion Science Center

Why hasn’t a group of disgruntled Harvard alumni circulated a statement itemizing the damage that Larry Summers wrought as president of the University? Yeah, I know, it would be divisive, grown-ups are discouraged from raising uncomfortable questions, or worse, demanding accountability of leaders. But Summers did a great deal of damage to Harvard, and has […]

“Financial Reform, or, Rearranging Chairs on the Titanic”

By L. Randall Wray is a professor of economics and research director of the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and writes for New Deal 2.0 Congress is nearing completion of its financial reform bill HR 4173 (Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009), which appears […]

Effort to Reform Finance Instead Turning into a Coup by Banksters

I am not sure whether Potemkin reform is worse than no reform at all, except the latter makes it abundantly clear that America is in the hands of a corrupt plutocratic elite. The latest, from the Huffington Post, is that the normal flurry of last minute amendments to gut legislation has gone one step further, […]