Obama, Geither speak loudly, Volcker previews stick size

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Thursday February 05, 2009 · 7:09 AM PST

2009/02/05 · 07:09

While much of the past day’s news has been focused on the Obama Administration’s populist announcement that executive pay, at the companies that accept TARP funding, will be capped at $500,000; some less noticed news with a longer term implication was being made by Paul Volcker who testified in front of the Senate Banking Committee. Volcker is the chair of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and the topic of the hearing was “Modernizing the U.S. Financial Regulatory System.” The New York Times reported on his testimony here

While Volcker had been invited to testify in his role as chairman of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, he is also the chairman of the Trustees of the Group of Thirty an influential body composed of leading financiers, academics and central bank officials from around the world. (Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner and Paul Krugman have all been listed as members in the past year)

bankbane

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Friday January 30, 2009 · 5:59 AM PST

2009/01/30 · 05:59

On Wednesday, President Obama’s first nomination to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Daniel Tarullo, was sworn in, after being confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 96 to 1 on Tuesday. (The old curmudgeon Senator Bunning strikes again.)

The members of the Board of Governors serve 14 year terms, and because there are currently two additional vacancies on the seven-member Board and Chairman Bernanke’s four year term as Chairman is up on January 31, 2010, President Obama has the potential to effect a lasting change in the direction of the Federal Reserve within a year. While Chairman Bernanke’s full term lasts until 2020, a chairman who is not re-nominated to that post usually resigns from the Board of Governors fairly quickly.

Who is Daniel Tarullo:

bankbane

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Wednesday January 28, 2009 · 6:36 AM PST

2009/01/28 · 06:36

The morning’s New York Times confirms that Treasury Secretary Geithner has picked Mark Patterson as his chief of staff, paradoxically within a story about Geithner’s announcement of new “rules to ‘combat lobbyist influence’ over the bailout program. . . .”

Who is Mark Patterson? He has a Democratic pedigree, having served as staff of Senator Moynihan and Senator Dasschle. But most recently, from 2003 until April of 2008, he served as a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, serving as the “co-head of U.S. government relations” for at least part of that time.

So is making a high-profile announcement about “combating lobbyist influence” just one of those “head fakes,” to throw the activists off, or do we really need someone who was right in the belly of the beast to understand how to tame the beast?

I’ll reserve judgment on this new Treasury Secretary and his team until their fruits start becoming obvious, but I have to say that it doesn’t look good to me so far.

What did Mr. Patterson work on as a Goldman Sachs lobbyist?

bankbane

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Monday January 26, 2009 · 6:57 PM PST

2009/01/26 · 18:57

The Senate has confirmed Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary by a 60 to 34 vote. The Democrats joining the Republicans, who mostly opposed this nomination, were Feingold, Harkin and Byrd, also joined by Sanders.

There is another diary below chastising Senator Feingold for his vote; rather than get into a pissing match in that diary, I'd rather lay out my thoughts here. I want to be clear that I support President Obama and I am mostly happy with what he has done since becoming President. But this team of Geithner, Summers and (reportedly) Sunstein, who will have a lot to say about how regulations that govern the the Financial Services industry get reformed, make me plenty nervous about a subject I care deeply about.

During the confirmation hearing the best questions for Geithner came from Senator Bunning of Kentucky, a man who I’ve never thought I had anything in common with. The following four questions and their no-content answers in particular bothered me.

bankbane

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Wednesday October 01, 2008 · 6:29 AM PDT

2008/10/01 · 06:29

The Senate is voting on the bailout today and the House will soon be following suit. The progressive Dems in the House have been pushing for a bill that will be focused on having real protections for the taxpayers, strong anti-predatory lending legislation, and will provide mandatory mechanisms for modifying many of the bad loans that are still out there.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has been in the forefront for several years, trying to get the regulators, this Administration and Congress to address these issues. You can see NCRC’s talking points on the bailout out legislation here.

You can also weigh with Congress on this issue easily by going to this site where a simple clear message to your member of Congress will be generated on your behalf.

NCRC’s President and CEO, John Taylor has been working hard to get a progressive message out about this bailout. Over the jump you can read his latest letter to NCRC members and the general public.

bankbane

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Wednesday December 12, 2007 · 1:19 PM PST

2007/12/12 · 13:19

This afternoon Senator Dodd has introduced an anti-predatory lending bill that, if passed, will insure that a full-blown mess like the current subprime crisis will not happen in the future. Last month the House of Representatives passed HR 3915, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007 by a vote of 291 to 127.

Now Senate Banking Committee Chair, Chris Dodd, has introduced a companion bill on the Senate side which is much stronger and consumer friendly. We can, however, expect the same kind of intense industry pressure to water down the Senate bill that we witnessed in the House. You can help by letting your senator know that you want a law that holds Wall Street, the loan servicers, the appraisers, the lenders and the mortgage brokers all held accountable so that the junk loans of the past three years never get foisted on the American people again. .

You can keep track of this bill by checking in regularly with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

If you want more details go over the jump:

bankbane

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Wednesday November 14, 2007 · 1:48 PM PST

2007/11/14 · 13:48

Today Congressman Frank seriously caved in on several issues that make what was a potentially good anti-predatory lending bill (HR 3915) too weak to make much difference in the fight against predatory lending. The House will begin working on this bill tomorrow so we need all members of Congress to get an urgent call or fax asking them to vote against the entire bill unless some specific measures are restored or added. The areas of concern include Yield Spread amendments, anti-steering provisions, lack of full accountability for Wall Street, too broad a preemption of state law and weakening of the provisions that protect tenants. Your call tonight or early tomorrow morning could make the difference as consumer groups are trying to fight back against the enormous pressure being brought to bear by the predatory lending industry.

Danielua (who I don’t know) has diaried this below, but this is so important that I’m following up. Details over the jump.

bankbane

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Monday November 12, 2007 · 10:31 AM PST

2007/11/12 · 10:31

As I mentioned in a diary last week, Congressman Frank pushed an anti-predatory lending bill through the House Financial Services committee last week and that bill will likely be taken up by the whole House this week. The primary beneficiaries of bad loans, the mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders and the Wall Street securitizers are out in force right now trying to water the bill down and protect their interests. There will be amendments, both to strengthen this bill and weaken it. By weighing in with your Representative today, you can help protect consumers. Using the Democracy in Action web site hosted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition you can support the good guys in 60 seconds or less. More of the whys and wherefores over the jump.

bankbane

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Thursday November 08, 2007 · 5:49 AM PST

2007/11/08 · 05:49

For the last several years Congressman Miller has worked on an anti-predatory lending bill and has visited us here to explain his work. Most recently this diary and this diary have given some background to his efforts.

Now his bill, supported by Congressman Watt and reworked by Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, has been marked up and moved through committee. It is moving quickly towards a vote in the full House of Representatives next week. The bill is pretty good, but it could be made better if a few thousand Kossacks would take a minute for some automated activism on the bill. Follow me over the jump and I’ll explain why and how.

bankbane

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Wednesday September 05, 2007 · 4:01 AM PDT

2007/09/05 · 04:01

Yesterday the federal banking regulators and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors gave a nudge to subprime loan servicers to explore ways to be more flexible in providing solutions for borrowers who are facing interest rate resets in the coming months. No doubt the banking regulators have seen the graphs showing that there are a huge number of subprime ARMs adjusting in February and March of 2008. Those two months will have roughly three times the dollar amount of mortgages resetting compared to average months during the last half of this year. No doubt there is a great deal of nervousness at the regulatory agencies and among investors about what the impact will be of that pig working its way through the python. Over the jump I have the agency statement and my take on it.

bankbane

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Thursday April 26, 2007 · 12:41 PM PDT

2007/04/26 · 12:41

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and Ranking Republican Member Spencer Bachus yesterday sent a letter asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate the high number of foreclosures and to investigate the subprime mortgage market more generally. Because the House Financial Services Committee is planning to pass anti-predatory lending legislation later this year they have asked the GAO to study the current state of the problem, the causes of the problem and to identify potential solutions.

The GAO has a reputation for producing solid nonpartisan research on issues at the request of legislators and is one of the few agencies that so far appears to have escaped most of the relentless politicization of government by Karl Rove and his band of wary wanksters. Hopefully they will prepare an authoritative report that can answer some of the questions that are raised regularly in diaries on this site. Congressman Frank and Bacchus raise many of the questions that need answering, their questions are over the jump.

This diary is also an opportunity for you to add questions you think need answering in order for us to be sure that we don’t repeat these mistakes again.

bankbane

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Tuesday April 24, 2007 · 6:26 AM PDT

2007/04/24 · 06:26

Yesterday, all of the Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee (except Senator Johnson) sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke urging the Fed to take further action regarding predatory lending. The text of the letter is posted on Senator Dodd’s web site: http://dodd.senate.gov/...
The Washington Post also has a story about the letter this morning. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Many of us remain critical of Senator Dodd for failing to aggressively use his position to create tougher legislation on predatory lending, but this letter putting pressure on the Federal Reserve is a half step in the right direction and should be applauded and followed up on. I’ll outline the three key points made in the Democrat’s letter over the jump.

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Obama, Geither speak loudly, Volcker previews stick size

Daniel Tarullo-Beginning to Change the Federal Reserve

Geithner Chief of Staff was Goldman Sachs Lobbyist

Geithner's confirmation, another view

Act Now For More Progressive Bailout

Senator Dodd introduces Anti-predatory Lending Bill

The Dems are caving on predatory lending

Help! The sub prime profiteers might beat us

Anti-predatory lending bill moving fast

The Bank Regulatory Agencies Nudge Loan Servicers

Frank, Bacchus ask GAO to study subprime lending

Senate Dem's half step on predatory subprime lending