Dodd

Nobody seriously disputes whether Elizabeth Warren is the best-qualified candidate to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Everybody recognizes the bipartisan political appeal that Warren has with voters, and Democratic strategists know that no action in their power would play better to the party's base than a Warren nomination—a vital maneuver ahead of the November elections. more »

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Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is grasping at straws to block Elizabeth Warren's nomination as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He's making a fool of himself, and hurting his party's political prospects for November. more »

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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 »

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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 »

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Few realized it at the time, but Senator Chris Dodd's political career ended on June 12, 2008. more »

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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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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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Word is circulating through Capitol Hill right now that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has agreed to back a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve, paving the way for the almost certain passage of the measure. This is a major victory for serious Wall Street reform, and evidence of the mounting momentum to hold big banks and their regulators accountable. more »

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Last week, Larry Summers, the top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, gave a startlingly dishonest interview with PBS Newshour's Jeffrey Brown. more »

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President Barack Obama identified five major problems on Wall Street in his speech at Cooper Union today. Unfortunately, the solutions he has proposed to these problems either will not work, or are not included in the legislation that passed the Senate Banking Committee under the stewardship of Chris Dodd (D-CT). Here they are, one-by-one:

Too Big To Fail more »

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