June 1, 2010
U.S. Senate finally passes Financial Reform
It was a long time in coming, but in late May the US Senate finally agreed a financial reform package which now goes into a reconciliation process with the House bill passed in December. The May 19 vote on the approximately 1400 page bill was 59 to 39, with four Republicans (Collins, Snowe, Brown &. . . read more »
May 7, 2010
On the Regulation of Wall Street
Two major developments in late March and April 2010 One was the decision of the SEC to bring a civil law suit against Goldman Sachs. This re-opened the flood gates of criticism of morally (even legally) dubious Wall Street practices. Goldman Sachs stood accused of betting against some of its financial products, in particular against. . . read more »
May 7, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis
The foreclosure crisis is not going away any time soon. Data released in March 2010 showed the number of houses facing foreclosure rose in the 4th quarter of 2009, with households at least 90 days delinquent on their mortgages standing at 1.6 million. The number of foreclosures that quarter stood at 128,859, with an additional. . . read more »
January 30, 2010
The Housing Policy in 2009
The Obama administration moved quickly to help American families remortgage their houses and avoid foreclosure. On February 19 it put aside $75 billion of the bank bailout fund to help 4 million homeowners renegotiate their primary mortgages by giving financial incentives to lenders to modify loan terms and by subsidizing the borrowers’ interest payments over. . . read more »
January 10, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis
The 2009 story of the Obama Administration response to the foreclosure crisis is given below: but first, this 2010 update, pointing to the very genuine danger of a second wave of foreclosures to come. • Evidence continues to build that the Obama program (details of which are below) helped very few homeowners in difficulty in. . . read more »
December 8, 2009
Regulating the Banks?
The large US financial institutions were major recipients of government bail-out money in 2008/9 – bailout money that cumulatively came to a staggering $17.5 trillion – and in consequence they also became in 2008/9 a major target of both public censure and politically-inspired reform. The public largesse to them – predicated on the belief that. . . read more »
