If you live in Oregon, clear your calendar, because Senator Jeff Merkley (D. OR) is getting a big visit from one of his closest allies in the U.S. Senate:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is headed to Oregon next month to help secure the reelection of one her fellow progressives, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
Warren and Merkley will hold a grassroots fundraiser in Portland at 12:30 p.m. on May 28 at the Hilton downtown.
"I'm proud to have Elizabeth's support and glad Oregonians are going to have a chance to see up close how terrific she is,” Merkley said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post. "She is a champion for working people across this nation and a close ally of mine on so many issues, from the battle to reform Wall Street to our fight to bring down the cost of college loans. It's a privilege seeing her in action in the Senate and I'm glad to have her join me here in Oregon."
Merkley has become a key voice for progressives in the Senate, spearheading the push for filibuster reform and introducing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support. He also led the opposition to Larry Summers becoming chair of the Federal Reserve.
In 2010, Merkley was a leading advocate for Warren to chair the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The admiration is mutual; when Merkley gave the keynote address last year at Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of progressive activists, Warren called him her "mentor" and "friend." At a recent stop on her book tour, Warren cited Merkley, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) as three colleagues who have been "particularly helpful" in the chamber. - Huffington Post, 4/29/14
Contact the Merkley campaign for more info about the event:
http://www.jeffmerkley.com/...
This will be a short one but I wanted to pass the word along to all of you in Oregon. By the way, Senator Merkley has been keeping up the fight to make sure Dodd-Frank works properly:
http://www.businessweek.com/...
Global regulators are holding closed-door meetings with financial industry representatives to discuss derivatives rules that banks have sought to curb, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Regulators including the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission met in Washington yesterday to discuss the cross-border reach of derivatives rules, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the meetings are private. The meeting, convened by the International Organization of Securities Commissions, included representatives of the world’s largest swap dealers as well as consumer advocates.
The Iosco panel is gathering information on differences between rules in the U.S. and elsewhere in an effort to improve coordination of regulations put in place since the 2008 credit crisis. The group has also held meetings in London and Hong Kong, one of the people said.
“You could potentially use this to unravel big chunks of Dodd-Frank,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO labor union. The CFTC should institute a default presumption that affiliates are guaranteed by their parent company unless a bank can prove otherwise, he said. “If they can’t do that then they should be seen as guaranteed.”
The CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission, which also has oversight of derivatives, are letting U.S. banks pretend their foreign affiliates aren’t backed by their domestic banks, Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said in an e-mailed statement.
“The CFTC and the SEC must close this dangerous loophole and close it quickly, and if they don’t the Federal Reserve should use its own supervisory authority to act,” Merkley said.
The CFTC has also faced criticism from regulators around the world. A committee of Asian regulators that is part of Iosco told the CFTC in a letter on April 9 that swap markets are becoming fragmented because traders outside the U.S. are taking steps to avoid falling under Dodd-Frank, particularly rules requiring deals to occur on new swap execution facilities. - Businessweek, 4/28/14
Click the article to read more. In the mean time, lets make sure Merkley is ready to win in November. Click here to donate and get involved with his campaign:
http://www.jeffmerkley.com/