As Barack Obama campaigns for a second term, TIME’s photo editors recap his White House tenure to date.
financial reform
Political Pictures of the Week, April 21-27
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.
The Vatican’s Radical Ideas on Financial Reform
Those politicians who think the Dodd-Frank law went too far in attempting to reform Wall Street will likely need smelling salts after taking a look at a proposal for reforming the global financial system that was released by the …
Ben Bernanke Embraces Obama’s Reality-Based Presidency
Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry still knows about as much about monetary policy as Sarah Palin knows about American history—or, for that matter, about monetary policy—but maybe there was a glimmer of …
Treasury Secretary Geithner Praises Elizabeth Warren
The White House and the Treasury Department have spent the last week offering denials of an anonymously sourced Huffington Post report that said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner opposes nominating Elizabeth Warren to the head the newly-created Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
On Thursday morning, Geithner himself went even …
The Call: Financial Reform Endgame, A Naysayer Eats Crow
Michael Grunwald joins me for this week’s podcast:
Financial Reform’s Passage: It’s Just the Beginning
By a 60-39 vote Thursday, the Senate passed legislation that re-calibrates the flow of capital through the American financial sector and provides new powers to the regulatory regime that oversees it. The final bill is the culmination of a near two-year effort launched after 2008’s Wall Street crisis thrust the nation into recession and …
Scott Brown, Champion of the Democratic Agenda
For all the talk of being the “41st Senator” (thus denying the Democrats their supermajority), Scott Brown sure has a knack for delivering numero 60 for Harry Reid and Co. in a pinch. You may remember the time he saved the Democrats’ jobs bill. Today the Massachusetts Senator, who won late-in-the-game concessions in conference committee, …
What Can Dodd-Frank Do For You?
A little while back, a reader asked me, “what is in the [financial reform] bill that affects us little people?” I gave only a very cursory answer, but the first item on my list was the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. By overseeing the loans and financial products companies sell to individual consumers, the CFPB has the potential to …
Senate Math on Financial Reform Gets a Bit Easier
Maria Cantwell intends to vote for the bill, her spokesman tells me. She was won over by a letter from Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, in which he reassured her the language regulating derivatives is sufficiently clear and enforceable. Cantwell voted against the original Senate version because of concerns that …
The House Passed Financial Reform; Now What?
The House of Representatives passed a sweeping overhaul of America’s financial sector and the regulatory structure that oversees it Wednesday evening, the penultimate step in a two-year effort sparked by the 2008 crisis. The 237-192 vote split largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the measure and most Republicans …
Financial Reform Conference Kicks Off
Members of the House and Senate are currently meeting to iron out the differences between their two regulatory reform bills and you can watch the thrilling roller coaster ride live on C-SPAN if you’re so inclined.
If you need some reading material to follow along with, here are a few suggestions:
Updated: Financial Regulatory Reform Passes the Senate
Aided by “ayes” from Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Senate Democrats succeeded in ending debate on financial regulatory reform by a 60-40 vote Thursday afternoon. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold remained in opposition to the procedural motion, hoping to secure more time to consider …