Financial Reform

Chamber CEO Backs JP Morgan And Dimon In Wake Of Huge Trading Losses

Brian Beutler | May 21, 2012, 12:38PM

Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue says further regulation is the wrong response to news that banking giant JP Morgan lost billions of dollars speculating with depositor money. And though he allowed that the development raises legitimate questions about the size of major banks, Donohue defended JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon from the criticism he's received since he announced the staggering losses 10 days ago.

"Nobody's clear about the Volcker Rule," Donohue told reporters at a Monday breakfast roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "It's 270 some pages and if you gave it to six experts on the subject, they'd come back with seven interpretations what it means [but] I do also understand why the regulators start looking at the size of some of these places that they really worry."

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Barack Obama

Politicians And Regulators Tread Lightly Around JP Morgan Debacle

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2012, 5:00AM

Occupy Wall Street protesters outside a GOP event in Manchester, NH. January 07, 2012

The revelation that banking giant JP Morgan lost $2 billion making risky bets with depositor funds is only four days old, but early indications suggest that the financial industry's capture of American government successfully weathered the 2008 crisis, with nearly all the political and regulatory players invested in the consequences of this latest debacle treading lightly around the questions it raises.

It has, however, re-energized outside advocates of strengthening financial reform -- including a certain high-profile Senate candidate -- and left those who favor repealing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law in an untenable position.

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Barack Obama

Obama Campaign Knocks Romney In Wake Of JP Morgan Debacle

Brian Beutler | May 11, 2012, 4:30PM

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

The Obama campaign is seizing on the news that financial giant JP Morgan lost billions of dollars trading derivatives with customer funds to attack Mitt Romney for wanting to repeal the 2010 law meant to curtail these kinds of risky bets.

"Rolling back Wall Street reform, as Mitt Romney proposes, would be reckless," says Obama camp spokeswoman Lis Smith in a statement to TPM. "The law promotes transparency, limits the types of risky investments that can be made with deposits insured by federal taxpayers, and prevents investment losses at one bank from threatening the whole financial system. Returning to the failed policy of letting Wall Street write their own rules would put all of us at greater risk of another financial crisis and leave us vulnerable to another taxpayer-funded bank bailout like the one shortly before President Obama took office."

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Barack Obama

New Wall Street Scandal Threatens Romney

Brian Beutler | May 11, 2012, 12:11PM

Mitt Romney

A surprising development on Wall Street Thursday could magnify a little-discussed but key difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney -- one with enormous consequences for public policy.

On a conference call with analysts, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon announced that his firm had lost $2 billion investing in the same species of derivative that exacerbated the 2008 financial crisis.

Dimon claims the company is prepared to absorb the loss, but it puts the reputation of one of the only big firms to weather the 2008 financial crisis directly on the line.

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Richard Cordray

Why Obama Chose To Appoint Cordray The Hard Way

Brian Beutler | January 4, 2012, 2:20PM

Richard Cordray, nominee for Director of the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Republicans are predictably attacking President Obama's decision to recess appoint Richard Cordray -- his top consumer watchdog -- on procedural grounds and with constitutional volleys. This is why Obama and Cordray's allies thought it might be wiser for Obama to make the appointment on Tuesday when, for technical reasons, he could have relied on precedent and avoided opening this particular Pandora's box.

But by taking a more daring approach, Obama managed to both wrongfoot the GOP politically, and secure for Cordray up to an extra year in the director's chair at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Here's why:

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Barack Obama

GOP Furious As Obama Recess Appoints Cordray

Brian Beutler | January 4, 2012, 11:23AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) conducts a news conference along with fellow GOP members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 2011.

No surprise here. Top Republicans are ripping President Obama's decision to recess appoint his top consumer watchdog, Richard Cordray.

"Although the Senate is not in recess, President Obama, in an unprecedented move, has arrogantly circumvented the American people by 'recess' appointing Richard Cordray as director of the new CFPB," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an official statement. "This recess appointment represents a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer. Breaking from this precedent lands this appointee in uncertain legal territory, threatens the confirmation process and fundamentally endangers the Congress's role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch."

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Barack Obama

Why Obama's Defying The GOP And Appointing Top Consumer Watchdog

Brian Beutler | January 4, 2012, 9:54AM

President Barack Obama

Update 10:17 Eastern. This post has been updated from an earlier version in order to reflect the full confirmation that has now come in..

The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010.

Cordray's an accidental victim of a brazen act of GOP obstruction. They're refusing to allow an up-or-down vote on any CFPB nominee until the agency itself is fundamentally weakened -- an extra-legal attempt to nullify a key portion of an act of law.

Obama actually missed his best opportunity to recess appoint his top consumer watchdog on Tuesday. But there are reasons Obama opted to take a more confrontational approach.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Obama Misses Key Window For Empowering Top Consumer Watchdog

Brian Beutler | January 3, 2012, 12:53PM

President Barack Obama

Today was the day that legal experts and many aides in both parties thought President Obama would provide a recess appointment to Richard Cordray, his nominee to administer the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The rationale is quite technical, but here's the bottom line: one reading of the Constitution and of executive branch administrative law suggest that today is Obama's last day to recess appoint any of his languishing nominees, at least until the next time the Senate leaves town several weeks from now.

But a senior administration official who would not be quoted told reporters at a White House background briefing Tuesday that Obama will not take advantage of that opening.

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Richard Cordray

GOP Filibusters Top Consumer Protection Nominee

Brian Beutler | December 8, 2011, 11:37AM

This post was updated at 11:55 a.m.

As they promised they would, the overwhelming majority of Republicans on Wednesday filibustered Richard Cordray, the uncontroversial former Ohio Attorney General whom President Obama tapped to be the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- an agency tasked with mitigating fraudulent and dangerous financial products.

The final vote was 53-45, with one Senator, Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voting present and one, John Kerry (D-MA) not on hand to vote. GOP Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) -- running for re-election against the CFPB's godmother Elizabeth Warren -- joined the Democrats in supporting Cordray.

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Financial Reform

Sr. White House Official: GOP Consumer Bureau Demands 'Unacceptable'

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 6:12PM

President Barack Obama

The White House making a big public push to pressure moderate Republicans to support Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, when the Senate votes on his confirmation Thursday. Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to filibuster any potential director until Democrats agree to dramatically scale back the bureau's regulatory power.

In a background briefing with reporters Monday, a senior White House official said the GOP's demands won't fly.

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Scott Brown

Report: Scott Brown Bucks GOP, Endorses Cordray CFPB Nominee

Brian Beutler | November 14, 2011, 5:19PM

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is bucking his party and asking for an up-or-down vote for former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"The senator supports the Cordray nomination and believes it deserves an up or down vote on the Senate floor," his spokesman John Donnelly told the Boston Globe.

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Occupy Wall Street

Dems Press Eric Holder To Investigate Banks For Colluding Over ATM Fees

Brian Beutler | October 14, 2011, 5:50AM

Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)

If you're a member of Congress trying to rein in Wall Street, now's your moment, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) is seizing it.

Welch helped lead the effort in 2010 to limit the "swipe fees" banks can charge retailers for each debit card transaction -- fees retailers passed on to consumers. Those rules went into effect earlier this year and, as if to serve as recruiters for the anti-Wall Street protests spreading across the country, Bank of America and other financial firms decided to recoup the lost profits by imposing an ATM fee on their customers -- a penalty of sorts for having automated access to your own money.

In a functioning market this practice might have ended before it began, as disgruntled customers took their business to firms that didn't attempt to bilk their customers.

That's not happening. So Welch wants Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate these banks for collusive behavior.

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Timothy Geithner

Geithner Dodges On Sympathy For Occupy Wall St, Expresses Shock At Wall Street Antipathy To Obama

Brian Beutler | October 5, 2011, 4:54PM

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told an audience of the country's elite Wednesday that he sympathizes with the underlying loss of faith anti-Wall Street protesters and other Americans have in the country's ruling class -- though not specifically for the growing "Occupy Wall Street" protest movement itself. But at the same time he expressed astonishment and dismay at Wall Street's loss of faith in President Obama and the administration.

The juxtaposition is striking, and illustrates how at odds the anti-Wall Street movement is with the administration.

"I feel a lot of sympathy for what you might describe as the general sense among Americans as whether we've lost the sense of possibility and whether after a pretty bad lost decade in terms of income growth or fiscal responsibility...followed by a devastating crisis, huge loss of faith in public institutions, people do wonder whether we have the ability to do things that can help the average sense of opportunity in the country," Geithner said at The Atlantic's Ideas Forum, just a few blocks from both the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

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Health Care

DeMint: Obama Administration The 'Most Anti-American' In My Lifetime

Brian Beutler | August 11, 2011, 11:25AM

Jim DeMint

Conservative power-broker Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) ran through his litany of complaints about President Obama on Janet Meffered's Christian conservative radio show Wednesday, and concluded that of all the anti-American administrations in his lifetime, Obama's is the most anti-American.

"We saw within a few days that this President was going to be heavy-handed, he was going to implement his agenda and pay back his political allies, and it just went on from there to ObamaCare and then to Dodd-Frank," DeMint said.

It has been the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration in my lifetime. Things that are just so anathema to the principles of freedom, and everything he has come up with centralizes more power in Washington, creates more socialist-style, collectivist policies. This president is doing something that's so far out of the realm of anything Republicans ever did wrong, it's hard to even imagine.

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Elizabeth Warren

Warren: Time For A Recess Appointment Or A Big Political Fight Over Consumer Bureau

Brian Beutler | July 18, 2011, 6:07PM

Consumer Affairs and Protection Bureau Director Elizabeth Warren

Now that the White House has decided not to nominate Elizabeth Warren to run the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she's taking her fight to protect the new agency directly to Republicans. And she says the time has come either for President Obama to recess appoint his designated director, or to engage in a loud, public fight with the GOP senators who have vowed to block the confirmation of any nominee, regardless of ideology or affiliation.

On a conference call with reporters and bloggers Monday evening, Warren described the impasse Republicans have erected as an opportunity.

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Republicans

Pressed On How Obama Made The Economy 'Worse' GOP Says 'He Passed Health Care Reform!'

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2011, 10:10AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

The GOP has a new favorite line about President Obama and if the speed with which they've all adopted it is any indication, then it works well with focus groups, and, through sheer repitition, it makes its way seamlessly into news article after news article.

Obama inherited a tough economy, they say, but "he made it worse."

Mitt Romney's saying it, members of the GOP congressional leadership say it over and over again at their weekly press conferences. It's not going anywhere.

The problem is that, by most metrics, this is simply false. Yes, the economy shed millions of jobs in late 2008 and early 2009, so unemployment is higher now than it was when Obama took office. But, as others have pointed out, when he took office the economy was shrinking, it's now growing again. When he took office, the economy was shedding jobs, it's now creating them. You can fault him for doing too little, or not doing it well enough, but as bad as things are, they're not worse than they were two and a half years ago. And non-partisan fact checkers agree.

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Elizabeth Warren

Dems Press Obama To Recess Appoint Elizabeth Warren To Run Consumer Bureau

Brian Beutler | May 19, 2011, 8:28AM

Elizabeth Warren

With Senate Republicans committed to blocking all potential directors of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, congressional Democrats are pressing President Obama to accept reality and offer Elizabeth Warren a recess appointment to head the agency she conceived of.

"Regretfully, Republicans in the Senate have now made it clear that they oppose reform," reads a letter from House Democrats that will be delivered to President Obama.

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Financial Reform

Republicans Attempt To Hamstring Consumer Protection Bureau In Spending Bill

Brian Beutler | February 16, 2011, 3:12PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Here's another way Republicans are coming after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The GOP wants to severely limit the fledgling agency's initial appropriations -- just as its staffing up and growing into a functional oversight body.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) discovered the measure buried in the House Republicans' new spending bill. He and his colleagues Barney Frank (D-MA) and Brad Miller (D-NC) are circulating a letter to colleagues to draw attention to the plan.

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Financial Reform

Republicans Gear Up For Fight Over Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Brian Beutler | February 16, 2011, 2:12PM

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)

Keep an eye on this in the weeks and months ahead.

A House Republican on the Financial Services committee has introduced legislation that would make it easier for Congress to hamstring, or defund, the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Once fully erected, the Bureau will be housed within the Federal Reserve and be guaranteed a percentage of the Fed's budget, with the option of asking Congress for more money. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) proposes keeping it in the Department of Treasury, where Congress would have complete control over its purse strings.

In a brief interview Tuesday, Neugebauer was pretty candid about this.

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Darrell Issa

Major Trade Association Asks Issa To Curb Toxin, Safety, Financial Reform Regs

Brian Beutler | January 12, 2011, 10:18AM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Late last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the country's major trade associations and private corporations asking them which regulations they want to see weakened or eliminated.

In response, the GOP-friendly National Association of Manufacturers has asked him to probe forthcoming regulations aimed at enhancing worker health, improving toxin standards, mitigating climate pollution and preventing another crisis on Wall Street.

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Financial Crisis

GOPers: The Best Way To Prevent Financial Crises Is Deficit Reduction

Megan Carpentier | December 15, 2010, 5:00PM

Former Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA)

The four Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission split off and issued their own report on the 2008 financial crisis today, a full month before the Commission is scheduled to release its report. The GOPers' surprising conclusion: "We caution our nation's leaders to learn the appropriate lessons from history and take seriously the need to reduce our federal deficit." What?

Former Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), who once chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, joined with former CBO director and economic adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign Douglas Holtz-Eakin, AEI scholar and Reagan-era Treasury official Peter Wallison, and Hoover Institute fellow and former George W. Bush economic adviser Keith Hennessey to issue their report, which largely focuses on the what they see as the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the crisis -- and the implications of moral hazard stemming from the government's implicit guarantees of the two institutions.

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Barack Obama

White House Talking Points Suggest Veto Of Health Care Repeal

Brian Beutler | November 3, 2010, 2:51PM

President Barack Obama

In his press conference this morning, President Obama said he'd be willing to tweak and improve his signature initiatives, particularly health care reform. But in new talking points sent our way, the White House makes clear that Obama will veto any attempt to repeal those accomplishments.

It would be a mistake to spend the next two years re-fighting the political battles of the last two years. The President is proud of the progress we have made for average Americans - from health care reform, to financial reform and reforms to our education system. While he has always made it clear that he is open to ideas from both sides of the aisle to improve these important new laws, he will not accept attempts to repeal or weaken them.

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Barney Frank

Bielat Campaign Produces Attack Ad Of Barney Frank As Hip-Swerving Disco Queen (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 22, 2010, 12:01PM

This isn't running on TV, at least not yet. But the below web video, produced by the Sean Bielat (R) campaign is making the rounds anyhow.

You'll see why when you watch it. Bielat's running against Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Frank chairs the House Financial Services committee and is the most famous openly gay member of Congress. Bielat combines those two themes in the video to lay the responsibility for the financial crisis at Frank's feet... while portraying him as a hip-swerving disco queen in a rumpled suit.

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CFTC

Retiring Judge Accuses Colleague Of Corruptly Siding With Major Financial Firms Over 20 Years

Brian Beutler | October 22, 2010, 11:37AM

Is it possible that for nearly 20 years, one of the two administrative judges presiding over investor complaints at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has followed through on a secret vow to rule on the side of financial firms and professionals against individual investors?

On his way out the door last month, retiring judge George Painter levied that very charge against his now-former colleague, Bruce Levine. "On Judge Levine's first week on the job, nearly twenty years ago, he came into my office and stated that he had promised Wendy Gramm, then Chairwoman of the Commission, that we would never rule in a complainant's favor," Painter wrote in an order. "A review of his rulings will confirm that he fulfilled his vow."

(Wendy Gramm, a Republican appointee, is the wife of former Senator, and financial deregulator, Phil Gramm, neither of whom would comment for this story.)

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Government Shutdown

Cantor On Gov Shutdown: 'We Don't Want To Be Seen As A Bunch Of Yahoos'

Brian Beutler | October 4, 2010, 4:06PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) with GOP leaders

Maybe a GOP takeover won't be as bad as Democrats think -- or want you to think.

In an interview with Wall Street Journal economics editor Steve Moore, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor came closer than any Republican leader has thus far to declaring that Republicans will not force a government shutdown if they retake the House next year.

Moore asked Cantor whether Congress and the White House would reach an impasse mirroring the 1995 shutdown. "No," Cantor said. "I don't think the country needs or wants a shutdown," adding that Republicans can avoid that outcome if they "relentlessly make the case for how government overspending and debt are strangling the future competitiveness and growth of this country."

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dodd Hints At Lame Duck Confirmation Of Real Consumer Bureau Director

Brian Beutler | September 17, 2010, 10:40AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd remains skeptical that Elizabeth Warren can or will be confirmed to truly run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Yesterday, reacting to news that President Obama would appoint Warren to an advisory role at the CFPB, Dodd urged the White House to send the Senate a confirmable nominee. Possibly even during the so-called lame-duck session after the November elections.

"We still need to have a nominee," Dodd told reporters during a Senate vote. "My hope is they'll send us a nominee sometime in the next few weeks, or even in the lame duck. We'll have hearings and we'll consider who'll actually run the place."

Dodd said he doubts Warren can be confirmed.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Obama Appoints Elizabeth Warren To Advisory Position On Consumer Protection

Brian Beutler | September 17, 2010, 9:49AM

Elizabeth Warren, Chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP

The White House made it official this morning, appointing Elizabeth Warren to serve as an adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to help the administration set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a post on the White House blog, Warren writes, "The President asked me, and I enthusiastically agreed, to serve as an Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

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Elizabeth Warren

Confusion Reigns On Warren Role At New Consumer Protection Bureau

Brian Beutler | September 16, 2010, 12:16PM

Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the expenditure of TARP, Elizabeth Warren.

Conservatives are already calling her a banking "czar." The Obama administration is suggesting that she'll help "get the new federal agency standing." But there's still a great deal of confusion, both on the Hill and in the Obama administration about what Elizabeth Warren's new role as consumer protection adviser will be. Will she be a de facto director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Or will her powers be limited and subservient to the Treasury Secretary? Nobody seems to know.

After a Senate vote today, three key Senators -- including Warren supporters and detractors -- admitted to not knowing what Warren's new job will entail.

Asked by TPM whether he knew what Warren's role will be, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd answered simply, "No."

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Financial Reform

Dodd Unaware Of Interim Appointment Power For Warren?

Brian Beutler | September 14, 2010, 11:08AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

News reports yesterday generated speculation that the Obama administration will offer Elizabeth Warren a so-called "interim appointment" to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The authority for the Treasury Department to grant an interim appointment -- distinct from a "recess appointment" -- comes from the financial reform law itself.

In dismissing the rumor last night, though, Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd -- who authored the law -- claimed he'd never heard of the interim appointment power.

"I don't know what it is. I never heard of it before," said a flabbergasted Dodd to TPMDC. "It's kind of unique isn't it?"

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Olympia Snowe

Snowe Popular Among Maine Democrats, Not Republicans

Brian Beutler | September 10, 2010, 2:17PM

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Nearly a year after she bucked Democrats on health care reform, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is extremely popular in her home state... among Democrats.

According to new Public Policy Polling data, Snowe's high 50-40 approval ratings are due mostly to the fact that Democrats love her. Republicans, meanwhile, think she's basically just a Democrat. By a 50-37 margin, GOP voters say she'd be a better fit in the Democratic party. More than half of Republicans -- 51 percent -- disapprove of her while 40 percent give her high marks.

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Chris Dodd

Dodd Reverses Position, Suggests Warren May Not Be Qualified To Head Consumer Bureau

Brian Beutler | August 18, 2010, 10:36AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd has for weeks called into doubt whether Elizabeth Warren can be confirmed to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But for the first time this week, Dodd has called into question whether she's qualified for the job, reversing his earlier position.

"It isn't just a question of being a consumer advocate. I want to see that she can manage something, too," Dodd told the Hartford Courant.

That's a far cry from what he told TPM and other reporters just weeks ago, when his only stated concern, based on his conversations with colleagues, was that Democrats may have a hard time rounding up 60 votes to confirm her.

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Financial Reform

Frank: Abolish Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac

Brian Beutler | August 17, 2010, 8:47PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is calling for the abolition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises with a public mandate to boost home ownership, and which were taken into conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis.

In an appearance on Fox Business Network tonight, Frank said they should be replaced with new programs to support affordable rental housing.

"I think they should be abolished," Frank said. "The only question is what do you put in their place. This is a situation where given the importance they had come to play in housing, you can't tear down the old jail until you build a new one. And that's a process that we've started."

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Elizabeth Warren

Franken, Progressive Groups Begin Whip Campaign For Elizabeth Warren

Brian Beutler | August 5, 2010, 8:00AM

Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the expenditure of TARP, Elizabeth Warren.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and its new affiliate, the P St. Project, will launch a public campaign this week with the help of Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to whip up support in the Senate for Elizabeth Warren's nomination and confirmation to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

PCCC, in partnership with the progressive group CREDO, rounded up 200,000 petition signatures in support of Warren, and will now team up with Franken to urge members to publicly commit to voting for her.

"Elizabeth Warren has proven that she is willing to stand up to Wall Street on behalf of consumers and is the logical choice to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Franken said. "If appointed by President Obama, I would vote to confirm Elizabeth Warren to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

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Economy

In New Study, Two Economists Argue That Bush And Obama's Intervention Prevented Depression

Eric Kleefeld | July 28, 2010, 11:18AM

Pres. Obama and Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush

So has the Obama economic program been working? While the economy certainly continues to have problems, the Obama administration -- and some members of the Bush administration -- have consistently argued that things would have been worse without their intervention. And now, two economists have published a study arguing in favor of that very idea, saying that there's quantitative evidence that the interventions of the Obama and Bush administrations helped avert a depression.

As the New York Times reports, a new economic paper from Princeton professor and former Fed vice chair Alan S. Blinder and Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi argues that the combination of financial reforms such as TARP, bank stress tests and emergency lending by the Fed, plus the stimulus, have indeed saved the economy from far worse problems.

The report also finds that while the financial reforms alone would have been been stronger than the stimulus alone, the whole is not directly comparable to the sum of the parts in isolation, "because the policies tend to reinforce each other."

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Elizabeth Warren

Dodd: No Recess Appointment For Warren, Who Still May Not Be Confirmable

Brian Beutler | July 27, 2010, 1:54PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd cast more doubts this afternoon about whether Elizabeth Warren could garner enough votes to head the newly created consumer financial protection bureau, one day after White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called her "very confirmable."

"I don't know, that's the question, how does he know that?" Dodd said in response to a question from TPMDC on his way in to the Democrats' weekly policy lunch.

"She's qualified, no question about that. The question is whether she's confirmable," Dodd added. "The issue is [if] you can't confirm somebody, if you go six or seven months without someone in that job, you've got a problem."

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John Boehner

Boehner Gets Specific On His Plans To Halt Federal Regulation

Brian Beutler | July 27, 2010, 9:58AM

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

House Minority Leader John Boehner has offered specifics about his recent call for a moratorium on new federal regulations, and TPM's gotten a look at just what kinds of regulations -- other than the obvious ones implementing health care and Wall Street reforms -- Boehner's plan would block.

Boehner last week endorsed the REINS Act, sponsored by Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), saying at his weekly press conference that "any rulemaking where the estimated cost to Americans would exceed $100 million," should not go into effect "without Congress voting on it first." That's short of the full moratorium Boehner initially called for, but could nonetheless be a recipe for gridlock and ugly politics. That standard in the act would ensnare scores of new regulations every year, including both broadly popular, time-sensitive ones, and others over which remain substantial partisan disagreement.

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