We have a decent outline of what President Obama will cover in his first-ever Oval Office address about the oil disaster in the Gulf. We know he will update the nation on reorganizing the regulatory bureaucracy, cleaning up the spill, paying out claims and capping the well. The Administration’s strategy on those fronts have been [...]

(UPDATE: Please see my latest on this) Yesterday’s results in the election showed what has now become conventional wisdom: an “anti-incumbent mood,” something the media will parrot from now to November. Have they explored why? Have they tried to understand why people are so angry with the current crop of politicians in Washington? They can [...]

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) told reporters today that he was “not inclined” to support a vote for cloture on the Wall Street reform bill unless he gets a vote on the Volcker rule amendment authored by him and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Republicans blocked consideration of the amendment, even with a super-majority 60-vote threshold with [...]

Byron Dorgan, the indefatigable financial reformer, just pulled off one hell of a move on the floor of the Senate. He has been frustrated by being unable to get a vote on his amendment to ban naked credit default swaps, derivatives where the buyer and seller have no physical stake (essentially gambling bets on someone [...]

A lot of positioning on the Senate floor right now: First Chris Dodd attempted to bring up the Merkley-Levin amendment for an afternoon vote, darkly warning about efforts to “not get a vote” for some amendments because of Republican obstructionism. He asked unanimous consent on the motion to call up the amendment, and Richard Shelby, [...]

There are votes expected today on amendments to the Wall Street reform bill, but with at least two members of the Democratic caucus – Blanche Lincoln and Arlen Specter – wrapped up in primaries, the chances of getting involved in any controversial amendments are slight. But if Harry Reid wants a cloture vote tomorrow, he’ll [...]

Votes are scheduled to begin on amendments to the Wall Street reform bill tonight at 5:30 pm ET. We don’t know precisely which amendments are pending, but we do know that the McCain-Cantwell amendment to restore Glass-Steagall protections was mentioned on Thursday night as being on the list. However, those lists haven’t been totally accurate. [...]

As I noted yesterday, transparency in the Wall Street reform debate has led to decent substantive changes on the floor. In addition to transforming the way the credit rating agency system works with two amendments (that really aren’t as much in conflict as advertised), Senators yesterday approved an amendment by Dick Durbin to cut swipe [...]

A lot of people are surprised by the fact that Wall Street reform seems to be improving as it moves through the Senate. I do generally agree with the premise – the strong derivatives piece, the audit the Fed amendment, the Franken amendment on credit rating agencies, the Merkley-Klobuchar amendment banning liar loans and yield [...]

I’ve seen some commentary about the gradual improvements to the Wall Street reform bill in the Senate. And too be sure, a few amendments have gotten by that would be beneficial, some of them quite beneficial. Would any of them they change the way Wall Street does business? No, I don’t think so, though those [...]

In a fiery speech on the Senate floor, Russ Feingold conditioned his support for the Wall Street reform measure on adding a multitude of amendments that would break up the mega-banks, cap size and leverage and restore the firewall between commercial and investment banks. He even went so far as to say that he would [...]