CFPA

Members of Congress finished ironing out their differences on Wall Street reform last night, and the resulting bill deserves unequivocal support from progressives and conservatives alike. But while the final package is a necessary first step to overhauling the nation's out-of-control financial sector, it will do very little to change the destructive status quo on Wall Street. more »

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Conference Committee negotiations on Wall Street reform begin today, with several key battles still unresolved. Thanks to intense progressive pressure, those negotiations are going to be televised live. more »

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Richard (RJ) Eskow wrote a couple of days ago, in Traded-In: These "Used" Senators Sold Out The Troops For Auto Dealer Cash more »

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It's been apparent for several weeks that the Wall Street reform bill will not cut down the largest U.S. banking behemoths to a safe and manageable size. But individual oversized banks are not the only problem Big Finance poses to the economy—the overall sector is much too large, and if we do not shrink it, we'll be dealing with difficult economic conditions for years to come. more »

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There are two consumer protection amendments getting serious attention on the Senate floor this week, one of them positive, one of them incredibly destructive. Both revolve around the concept of "preemption"—the ability of federal regulators to block states from enforcing laws aginst banks that operate within their borders. more »

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The trade association for payday lenders objected to what they called my "name calling" in their blog yesterday ... then called me a "pig."Why? Because I quoted Aristotle and told a story about Jesus. Well, to be fair, I did suggest their industry might be "evil" according to traditional definitions of the term. But that doesn't explain the payday defender who called me "Doofus Major du Jour."

There are some more civil arguments being used to defend payday lenders, however, and many commenters repeated them in the Huffington Post and in the DailyKos. These arguments are myths. They're being repeated by reasonable, well-intentioned people who have been misled by a wealthy lobby and its flacks.

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Last week, Congress decided it would not confront Too Big To Fail, the single gravest threat to our collective financial security. more »

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Late last night, the U.S. Senate rejected the single most important element of Wall Street reform by a vote of 33 to 61. The SAFE Banking Act would have forced the break-up of the nation's six largest banks, and dramatically reduced the political clout of America's financial elite. The 61 votes against the measure are votes in favor of Wall Street's stranglehold on our economy. more »

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Today is the big day: thousands of people will march on Wall Street this afternoon to protest big bank abuses. more »

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6:05

This hearing has now been going for more than eight hours, and for better or for worse, I need to head over to do an interview with Al Jazeera English. It goes on at 7:00. I'll be talking about financial reform, in addition to the Goldman fraud case.

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6:00 more »

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