Category: Regulation

Michael Barone asks the right questions, we offer the right answer
If Republicans had three House members or one Senator as smart as Michael the GOP would be unstoppable this fall.
No such luck.
Barone, writing today, on financial reform is right on all three points he raises in his piece.
First, Republicans must offer their own agenda [...]

Here is our response to Nicole Gelinas:    

Please check out our column featured today on NRO.

Gabcast! Richard Vigilante on the Grandy & Andy Morning Show

Your investment advisor likely puts together your portfolio in the same way the busted banks put together their own portfolios of mortgage-backed securities
In Part I we talked about the first big idea that your investment advisor probably shares with your banker, especially if your bank is one of the big important ones that almost blew [...]

This Sunday, New York Times Magazine is publishing a story titled: HEADING OFF THE NEXT FINANCIAL CRISIS (Hat tip Mike Allen at Politico). In the piece New York Times economics columnist David Leonhardt looks at the idea of preventing the next financial crisis, or at least making it less damaging. He includes a conversation he [...]

Ok, let’s take the Dodd bill point by point, using the summary written by Dodd’s own committee staff.�
1)Creates “a strong consumer protection watchdog” which though housed in the Fed will be able to “autonomously write rules for consumer protection.”�
Dodd’s justification: “The economic crisis was driven by an across-the-board failure to protect consumers”�
Our Take: Imprudent “pro-consumer” [...]

Forget how sleazy this is. How stupid is it than someone with this kind of access is BUYING AIG in January 2008. Just goes to show how hopeless any regulatory solution is. This woman, along with Dodd himself, has privileged access to the best information available to the government. She is chief counsel to the [...]

The whitewash of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has to be numbered among the most successful spin operations of our time. Within days of the market collapse in September ‘08, both Senator Dodd and Representative Frank were marching stooges up to Capitol Hill to testify that Fannie and Freddie—virtually run by the congressional committees chaired [...]

How is it that one man can be so wrong, so often, about such obvious things. Here he takes up the mantra that of course we need a consumer financial protection agency. If the banks are not duping the gullible then “ why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers.” [...]