“In a decade of frenzied tax-cutting for the rich, the Republican Party just happened to lower tax rates for the poor, as well. Now several of the party’s most prominent presidential candidates and lawmakers want to correct that oversight and raise taxes on the poor and the working class, while protecting the rich, of course.” […]
“Less than two months after being chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde shook up last weekend’s conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with an urgent, much needed plea for bolder economic policies in the United States and Europe to head off a looming double-dip recession.” Read the full story at The New York Times
“A Washington hearing room was rapt last week as a man lectured on commodities markets. Money pouring in from investors had precipitated the “financialisation” of the sector. ‘Flows in these markets are having major effects on prices,’ he said. ‘That’s the takeaway.'” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“Auditors and regulators have come under fire for allowing European financial institutions to take wildly divergent approaches to Greek government bond writedowns. The criticism comes amid claims that some banks and insurers should have reported bigger Greek losses than they had acknowledged in recent first-half results announcements.”
“Europe’s top banking regulator is drawing up options to help banks in Europe struggling to tap credit markets for medium- and long-term funding. Among the policy proposals being considered by the European Banking Authority is a new guarantee scheme for bank bonds, a controversial measure that would require the eurozone’s €440bn bail-out fund to be given new powers.”
“Bank of America’s legal woes worsened as the biggest US bank by assets was sued for alleged breach of contract by US Bancorp over a $1.75bn pool of mortgages and investors moved to block a separate $8.5bn mortgage settlement.” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“The US unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to a five-year high of 6.1 per cent, said figures released yesterday, suggesting a bleaker picture of the world’s largest economy.” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will probably try to spur economic growth this month by cutting near-record-low borrowing costs, economists said. His new stimulus may not aid the 14 million Americans without work.” Read the full story at Bloomberg
“…while J.P. Morgan’s paper loss could prove fleeting, it is also a reminder of the Fed’s questionable decision in the spring to allow some banks to resume capital returns even as the central bank was printing money in an attempt to resuscitate the economy. Now, the Fed has trimmed its growth forecasts and declared it […]
“The Federal Reserve announced an enforcement action against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., saying the company’s mortgage-servicing unit had engaged in “a pattern of misconduct and negligence” in its handling of home-mortgage loans.” The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904583204576544644272823046.html?KEYWORDS=Goldman+Mortgage+order
“U.S. regulators have pushed Bank of America Corp. to show what measures it could take if conditions worsen for the Charlotte, N.C., lender, according to people familiar with the situation.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“The Obama administration now says U.S. unemployment could persist at its current stubbornly high level around 9% well into 2012.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
With the number of long term unemployed at historic highs, many are discouraged, losing their skills and being overtaken by younger workers as articles in the Wall Street Journal today point out. Read the full story here There is an interactive graphic that depressingly tells the story.
“Britain’s biggest banks are set to escape any major restructuring until after the planned 2015 general election, amid a political consensus that they should focus on business lending to sustain the faltering economy.” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“Since George Osborne has already promised to implement what Sir John Vickers proposes on making finance safer, the UK’s banks have realised the time to influence the debate is now. Once the report is published in two weeks, it will be too late.” The Financial Times http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/11195ee8-d491-11e0-a42b-00144feab49a.html#axzz1Wv9QkjYx
“The global manufacturing recovery appeared to have come to a grinding halt in August, activity surveys suggested on Thursday, undermining hopes of a vigorous economic recovery in the second half of the year.” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“Now the Fed’s commitment to at least two more years of near-zero interest rates is setting off a new round of carping about rising hard asset prices.” Read the full story at The Financial Times
“The US Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to sue some of the biggest US and European banks over their failure to inform buyers of securitised mortgages about the quality of the underlying assets. The FHFA oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge “government-sponsored enterprises” currently operating under a form of bankruptcy protection. Fannie […]
“With the unemployment rate at 9.1 per cent in August, about 7.3m US workers collect some form of unemployment insurance benefit, according to the National Employment Law Project, with the average weekly benefit just under $300 a week. This compares with 2.8m in December 2007. Typically, state bodies pay 26 weeks of payments of benefits and […]
“The unemployment outlook for the next 16 months reflects a 9.1 percent rate this year, down slightly from the 9.3 percent forecast when President Obama made his annual budget request in February. Next year, the projected jobless rate is 9 percent, up from 8.6 percent in the February forecast.” Read the full story at The New […]
“The government report on hiring, released on Friday, prompted another round in a relentless diminution of economic expectations. The unemployment rate, at 9.1 percent, did not change last month, and the White House said it was expected to stay that high through at least 2012.” Read the full story at The New York Times
“The number of jobs in the U.S. was reported as unchanged in August, and while that number will likely eventually be revised to a loss or a gain, the stagnation provides an apt metaphor for a stalled labor market where businesses are reluctant to hire.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“The U.S. jobless rate was flat at 9.1% in August, but the government’s broader measure of unemployment rose to 16.2%, matching the highest rate this year.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“One way to gauge today’s job market is to look at the historically low percentage of adults who are working.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“The U.S. economy slammed into a wall in August, failing to add any jobs for the first time in nearly a year and ratcheting up pressure on President Barack Obama to find a way to kick-start the sputtering recovery.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“The top federal housing regulator filed lawsuits on Friday against 17 of the world’s biggest financial institutions, saying they sold $196 billion of risky home loans over four years to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without adequately disclosing the risks.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“A bruising legal fight pitting the country’s most powerful banks against the full force of the United States government began Friday, as federal regulators filed suits against 17 financial institutions that sold the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nearly $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities that later soured.” Read the full story at The New York Times
“Attacks on the chairman of the Federal Reserve aren’t new.” Read the full article at The New York Times
“The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.” Read the full article at The New York […]
“Federal regulators launched a broad legal assault on big banks Friday, claiming they sold nearly $200 billion in fraudulent mortgage investments to housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to massive losses during the financial crisis.” Read the full story at The Washington Post
“The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reiterated Wednesday that CME Group Inc. needs to add more compliance staff to oversee its commodity exchanges. The CFTC made the same recommendation a year ago during its routine rule-enforcement review of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. The CFTC didn’t say what would happen if CME doesn’t […]
“The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the public a series of questions about the use of derivatives by mutual funds and other investment companies.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“While the SEC directed its staff for years to purge certain investigative records, other agencies in the United States and abroad that enforce financial laws have instructed that similar documents be kept.” Read the full story at The Washington Post
“U.S. home prices increased in the second quarter but fell compared with the same period last year, painting a mixed picture of the real-estate market amid plummeting consumer confidence.” Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal
“For anyone who thought the U.S. banking sector was healthy, Warren Buffett’s $5 billion investment in Bank of America should be a wake-up call.” Read the full story here
“It was only two years ago that there was a spirited debate about whether to break up the country’s biggest banks so the government would never again have to step in and bail them out for fear that a failure would trigger a financial panic. “The White House and Republicans never liked that idea. Instead, […]
“The U.S. economy grew at a meager 1 percent annual pace this spring, slower than previously estimated. The downward revision will likely increase fears that the economy is at risk of another recession.” Read the full story at The Washington Post
“The nation’s economy grew at an annual rate of 1 percent this spring, slower than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said Friday. The downward revision is stoking fears that the economy is at risk of another recession.” Read the full story at The New York Times
“The latest financial market convulsions have been tough for almost everyone, including traders caught on the wrong side of another big swing and pained everyday investors watching their dwindling holdings go down and up — and down again. But there is a silver lining to even this latest market horror show, at least for the […]
“FOR the last three years we have been told repeatedly by government officials that funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to large and teetering banks during the credit crisis was necessary to save the financial system, and beneficial to Main Street. But ….” Read the full story at The New York Times
“The economy may be bad, but consumer confidence is even worse and holds the potential to bring the sluggish recovery to a halt.” Read the full story at Wall Street Journal
“U.S. regulators have asked some banks to take more deposits from large investors even if it’s unprofitable, and lenders in return are seeking relief on insurance premiums and leverage ratios, according to six people with knowledge of the talks.” Read the full story at Bloomberg
The U.S. futures regulator expects to vote next month on a pair of proposals that would outline when the market would have to comply with new steps designed to bring more oversight to the multi-trillion-dollar swaps market, the chairman of the agency said on Thursday. Gary Gensler, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said […]
“Charles Schwab, the brokerage firm and investment manager, sued 11 major banks on Tuesday, claiming they conspired to manipulate a borrowing benchmark used to set interest rates. In a pair of lawsuits filed in the Federal District Court in San Francisco, the firm accused the banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, of […]
A group of regulators said Wednesday it wants to beef up surveillance of the $600 trillion swaps market via improved record-keeping and the reporting of additional information to data warehouses. The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and a working group of the International Organization of Securities Commissions released their proposals in response to Financial […]
“Douglas Peterson knows how to make a striking apology. In 2004, Mr. Peterson stood next to his boss, Citigroup Inc.’s then-chief executive, Charles Prince, to apologize for lapses at the company’s private-banking operations in Japan. In a widely reprinted image, the two executives bent over and cast their eyes at the floor at a news conference with Japanese officials. Saying […]
“Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading foreclosure settlement negotiations with the nation’s largest banks on behalf of all 50 states, abruptly removed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from the coalition’s executive committee Tuesday, saying he had “actively worked to undermine” the group’s efforts in recent months.” Read the full story at The Washington Post
“The European Central Bank’s emergency efforts to address the continent’s debt crisis represent a highly unorthodox leap into politics and an exceptional foray into the financial markets. But while these steps in recent weeks have helped keep the continent’s crisis at bay, in particular by keeping borrowing costs for several large countries under control, the central bank […]
“Regulators said they might not have enough information to assess the threat over-the-counter derivatives pose to the financial system.” Read the full story at Bloomberg
“Home prices in the U.S. fell 5.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2009, as foreclosures added to the inventory of properties for sale.” Read the full article at Bloomberg
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] or 202-618-6433.
To sign up for our email newsletter, please visit this page.
"* (Required)" indicates required fields
please contact [email protected] or 202-618-6433.
Help us fight for the public interest in our financial markets, protecting Main Street from Wall Street and avoiding another costly financial collapse and economic crisis, by making a donation today.
