Tricky auto loans didn't cause the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Unscrupulous payday lenders didn't cost taxpayers a $700 billion "troubled asset" bailout.

So fussing about whether U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial reform legislation contains an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency is like worrying about whether you'll lose your tool shed as a conflagration consumes your home.

Sure, shielding consumer borrowers would be nice. But safeguarding the entire economy from another collapse is essential.

Preserving the economy requires limiting, regulating and exposing derivative trading. That's because derivatives - those credit default swaps - took down Wall Street.

Neither the House of Representatives' version of financial reform nor Dodd's proposal adequately deals with derivatives. In fact, the language for derivative regulation isn't even complete in Dodd's bill. That is to say, it's unfinished two years after Bear Stearns toppled onto Wall Street, triggering domino disasters at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG, and warnings from regulators and politicians of a financial doomsday if taxpayers didn't hand over their hard-earned cash to save financial institutions accustomed to bonus payments in the billions.

More »»

• Strong Deficit Reduction Smooths Path To Sunday Health Care Vote
• Student Loan Reform In Health Care Bill
• Republicans Embrace Bankers Before Dodd Bill Vote
• President Signals Support For Bipartisan Immigration Proposal
• How Different Is Kerry-Lieberman-Graham?

More »»

Brad Johnson at the Wonk Room went through and compared the leaked Kerry-Graham-Lieberman Clean Energy Bil to the Waxman-Markey version passed by the House and President Obama's proposed plan.

(How much will the leaks resemble the final version? No one knows. So take the following remarks under advisement that there's no guarantee that K-G-L as publicly released will look anything like this draft.)

In short, it echoes the Senate version of the jobs bill: a bland, stripped down version of the House bill that's conceivably better than nothing. Though it spends a lot of money on coal and nuclear plants, which the jobs bill, even with all its missed opportunities, couldn't be accused of.

Because the legislative arena has been so relentlessly depressing lately, and with this bill probably the best that can pass, while it will almost certainly get terrible, terrible things added to it during committee markup, I'm going to focus on the bright points. What the heck. After all, it's only been released in bits, I don't yet know that they're going to gut EPA authority to regulate carbon emissions.

First is the Cantwell-Collins language, which prohibits derivatives trading on auctions and keeps uninvolved third parties out of the carbon market. Please, gods, let this make it into the final version of the legislation.

More »»

This is one of those things you just have to see to believe. Chances are you've seen it posted elsewhere, but it bears replaying over and over and over again. Here's the face of conservatism today, for ya — mocking and screaming at a man with Parkinson's disease.

More »»

The CBO now says health reform will cut the Federal deficit by $138 billion That's a win for the bill's backers, and should make it tougher for self-described 'fiscal conservatives' in the Democratic Party to vote against this bill. (No, let's re-frame that as a positive statement: It will make it easier for Conservadems to embrace this bill.) Now what's left is a battle between two clear political philosophies on the left and right: The principled but pragmatic progressivism embodied by Dennis Kucinich, or the nihilistic fury and self-interest that's best represented by Ann Coulter. Since both Coulder and Kucinich had a lot to say about health reform this week, it's worth taking a moment to compare and contrast their philosophies.

Let's start by offering three cheers for Kucinich. Cheer #1 is for his principled stand in favor of single-payer solutions, either at the national or state level. While I see a lot of economic and administrative problems with this large a transformation of our trillion-dollar health economy - problems not yet sufficiently addressed by single-payer advocates - Medicare For All is ethical, humane, moral, and fair. It was never going to pass, but Kucinich kept the flame alive and laid the groundwork for further progress toward a goal that may be achievable someday..

More »»

China's currency manipulation is a worldwide problem, not just a job-killer here.

U.S. Ambassador Calls China’s Currency Stance ‘a Real Concern’,

In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, the ambassador, Jon Huntsman, said that economic problems in the United States had increased pressure there for a change in the value of the renminbi, which China currently ties to the value of the dollar. That has kept Chinese exports comparatively cheap and, critics say, hampered other nations’ recovery from the global recession.

“My Chinese friends like to pitch this as just an American issue. I like to say that there are many countries that feel the same way,” Mr. Huntsman said. But he focused on the growing political backlash from Americans who feel the currency policy is hurting them. [emphasis added]

The managing director of the IMF - the 'I' stands for "International" - agrees. IMF Head Says Yuan Remains Undervalued

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday that China's currency remains undervalued.

More »»

Help us spread the word about these important stories...

Email to a friend

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on OurFuture.org.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 10 recipients

You are going to email the following: China's Currency Manipulation Manipulates The World

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from OurFuture.org

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the OurFuture.org web site.

Your Personal Message: *

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Magnoliacom
• Newsvine
• Furl
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo
• Technorati

• Health Care Bill Cuts Deficit $1.2 Trillion Says CBO
• Jobs Tax Credit Becomes Law Today. What's Next?
• Bernanke Wants It All
• New Draft From Tripartisan Climate Trio
• Social Security's Enemy Alan Simpson Kissed By NYT

More »»

When President Obama asked a group of senior executives for suggestions on streamlining government, it's unlikely that any of them suggested layers of new bureaucracy, vague marching orders, or management by committee. Yet Sen. Dodd's 'compromise' financial reform proposal does all these things.

The likely result? Banks and other financial institutions will still be tightly-run, aggressive organizations that can develop and sell complicated and risky new products in a heartbeat. But the agencies tasked with their oversight will be complicated and slow, encumbered by hard-to-follow rules and divided lines of authority. Guess who comes out ahead in that scenario?

Banks shouldn't be too big to fail, and bureaucracies shouldn't be too big to succeed.

As the New York Times notes in its headline, the Dodd bill "adds layers of oversight" to the reform process. Here's an example: Once upon a time (it seems so long ago now), it seemed as if our leaders understood that "too big to fail" meant "too big to exist." But there's no more talk of breaking up the big banks or subjecting them to the supervision of a "super regulator." Instead, oversight for them is given to a "Financial Stability Oversight Council" with nine members.

More »»

Wage theft has become more common in the downturn, the best the country's top economic policy makers can say about the job situation is that they don't "expect substantial further declines in unemployment this year," and former labor secretary Robert Reich explains that signs of recovery are greatly exaggerated. Cheery.

So it's good news that the Senate passed a jobs bill that will focus on small business employment tax cuts, as well as funding $20 billion worth of road and bridge construction.

But there are so many immediate needs, jobs that need doing and people who could do them, that the government could put a lot more people to work very quickly, and should. Because when families are slowly falling out of the middle class or into abject poverty, it's usually a death of a thousand cuts, it's usually a depletion of resources across their networks of family and friends until no one can afford to help anyone else.

More »»

The Chinese currency manipulation issue continues to make news.

Economist Paul Krugman lays out the stakes,

China is in effect imposing an anti-stimulus of that magnitude — which plausibly means 1.5 percent of GDP. This is not a small issue.

Senators Schumer, Graham and Brown revive legislation to push China: Schumer, Graham Push Bill to Pressure China on Yuan

Senators Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Sherrod Brown revived U.S. legislation that would increase pressure on China to raise the value of its currency.

. . . “President Obama has outlined a plan to double exports but you simply can’t do that if you don’t address the currency issue,” Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said at a news conference in Washington today. “China’s current policy is out-and-out protectionism.”

130 Members of Congress call on the President to act,

Today a bipartisan group of 130 members of Congress, ranging from Dennis Kucinich on the left to Joe Wilson on the right, wrote to President Obama asking him to stop Chinese currency manipulation.

More »»

Help us spread the word about these important stories...

Email to a friend

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on OurFuture.org.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 10 recipients

You are going to email the following: Chinese Currency Manipulation: "Not A Small Issue"

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from OurFuture.org

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the OurFuture.org web site.

Your Personal Message: *

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Magnoliacom
• Newsvine
• Furl
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo
• Technorati

The choice is simple. The reform legislation we have doesn't far enough, but it's a step in the right direction, as opposed to standing still or moving backwards. But a step in the right direction, however small, builds momentum for the next step forward. By some estimates, progressives made this reform a great deal better than it would have been had we not engaged. When this reform bill is signed into law, progressive should — and I have every reason to believe we will — start the fight to expand it even before the ink dries on President Obama's signature.

We can either take a step in the right direction, or we can take a huge step back. Standing still is not an option.

More »»

The nation is facing a jobs crisis, but “crisis” doesn’t begin to tell the story in the African-American community. “Five-alarm emergency” comes closer. A report by the Joint Economic Committee released today underscores the severity of African-American unemployment and bolsters the case for a $100 billion jobs bill introduced in the House last week.

That report—which included some heretofore unpublished Labor Department data—helped launch a discussion sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus today on what needs to be done to address chronic unemployment. That report noted some particularly troubling effects of the current recession among African Americans:

More »»

• Phony GOP Attack On House Rules
• Dodd Bill Hit From All Sides
• Bipartisan Bill Presses China On Currency
• Weak WH Jobs Forecast
• Conservatives Shill For Bank Lobby on Student Loan Reform
• Next Steps On Climate In Senate Unclear

More »»

Where will the jobs come from? President Obama wants to double America’s exports over five years to help generate good jobs. With Recovery Act spending coming to an end, states and localities laying off employees, banks still not making loans, and consumers reeling from unemployment, stagnant wages, and losses in home values and retirement plans, increasing exports is one ray of hope to generate jobs. And the U.S. can’t go back to the old economy where trade deficits reached 6 percent of gross domestic product, and we were borrowing over $2 billion a day from abroad to pay for goods made elsewhere.

But if the U.S. is to sell more abroad and borrow less, countries with trade surpluses – notably Germany and China – will have to spend more, buy more, save less and export less. The G-20 governments, representing the leading economies in the world, agreed that is the only way to have the reductions essential to a secure recovery in the dangerous and unsustainable imbalances in the global system.

Only China and Germany clearly haven’t gotten the message. The Chinese continue unprecedented measures to manipulate their currency, now starkly undervalued against the dollar. This is a centerpiece of a comprehensive mercantilist policy of growth by dominating export markets. Germany, the world’s second greatest surplus country, continues to restrain demand at home, while subsidizing its high-end export engines.

More »»

Government in many instances can do it better. Student loan reform –that awaits passage through reconciliation –will end tens of billions in wasteful bank subsidies and give much of the savings to students (via Pell Grants). How? By the federal government cutting out the middleman –ending the Federal Family Education Loan program (FFELP) that pays private lenders to dole out loans, when the government can do it for cheaper through direct lending. In other words, a single-lender system for student loans.

But bankers and their allies in Congress do not like this idea one bit. The student loan lobby is making its final push to kill student loan reform, proposing a last-ditch alternative plan to keep their profits.

More »»