Financial Regulation

MFGlobal’s Collapse: Is the System Working?

Former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s beleaguered trading shop, MFGlobal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, six days after it reported a third quarter loss of $191.6 million, sending its stock into a 67% tail-spin.

The cause of the collapse? A $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt by Corzine, which amounted …

Dodd-Frank Turns One

Democrats’ overhaul of the financial regulatory regime was signed into law one year ago Thursday. The very capable Roya Wolverson at Curious Capitalist is a skeptic. “Is the financial system any safer? Not likely,” she writes, listing half a dozen or so reasons Dodd-Frank has been ineffective in its first year on the books. I’m not sure …

Warren Goes to Bat for Obama

I can speculate about why Obama didn’t pick Elizabeth Warren to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but I’m not sure she knows either. Here’s the long view: Obama could have dumped the CFPB in the legislative process that led to the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. In fact, he was pressured by some Democrats — specifically, …

Grilling Elizabeth Warren

Midway through consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren’s appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper had heard enough. Republicans had been grilling Warren all morning, often on the basis of confusion or misinformation, and frequently with an openly hostile tone. It wasn’t quite as uncivil as …

Clarifying an Elizabethan Drama

I have a story in the new issue of TIME about the feisty consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, due to open July 21, which many liberals hope Warren will be named to manage. It’s a fascinating–and sensitive–topic. Warren’s supporters feel passionately that President Obama should fight for …

The Elizabeth Warren Test

The incredibly boorish grilling of Elizabeth Warren by Republican members of a House subcommittee on Tuesday raises two interesting questions: After a decade in which money lenders raped and pillaged homeowners, home-buyers and …

Sheila Bair’s Legacy: Trust

When the history of the American financial system’s near-death experience in 2008 is written, FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair, who officially announced her July 8 departure yesterday, will feature prominently.

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