As the House and Senate publicly iron out their differences on Wall Street reform during conference committee, the most important aspect of the overhaul is gaining strength behind the scenes. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is standing firm on her tough derivatives bill, and continues to garner unlikely allies from within the Federal Reserve as the final vote on the provision approaches. more »
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 »
Here's an audio clip of my appearance yesterday with Hannah-Beth Jackson on Santa Barbara progressive radio to discuss the current state of financial reform and what can be done next:
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 »
Thursday night's passage of Wall Street reform by the U.S. Senate is an event to be celebrated, but several key issues remain in play as the House and Senate seek to iron out differences between their respective versions of the legislation. more »
The most courageous vote yesterday in the Senate was cast by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who refused to let the Senate sign-off on an unnecessarily weak Wall Street reform bill. Cantwell has been trying to fix a fatal loophole in the derivatives language which prevents regulators from enforcing new rules on the secretive shadow markets that brought down AIG. more »
Looks like this is over for today. And that's a good thing. The amendments that Dodd and Reid were trying to block were good amendments that would strengthen both the reform bill and our economy. Two firm progressives stood up and rejected a bill that was unnecessarily weak, and now votes on derivatives reform, Merkley-Levin and other important amendments can be considered. more »
Some version of Wall Street reform is going to pass the Senate this week. The question now is how strong that reform will be. There are still three crucial battles to be waged, all of which would significantly change the way Wall Street does business. We will not fix Wall Street with this round of legislation, but we can reduce taxpayer exposure to bailouts and rein in consumer banking abuses. more »
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