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 [...]

The passage of the Sanders audit the Fed compromise does not signal the end of the amendment process to the Wall Street reform bill. In fact, several other measures should get a chance to become part of the legislation in a series of votes leading up to final passage. And many of them would greatly [...]

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 [...]

The New York Times takes a look at the “liberal amendments” to the Wall Street reform bill, which are actually just common-sense amendments to deal with the problem of an overheated financial sector, but which put those who just want to nibble around the edges and no put meaningful constraints on the big banks in [...]

As early as tomorrow, key votes on amendments to the Wall Street reform bill will begin. Over the next two weeks, dozens of amendments from both sides of the aisle will get a vote. Many of these amendments will be pro forma – one from Barbara Boxer will “forbid the use of taxpayer dollars” to [...]

The word “filibuster” didn’t appear in Mitch McConnell’s remarks about Wall Street reform today, as his caucus and the Democrats continue to negotiate over the bill (backroom deal!!!!). After a week of attacking the pending legislation as a ticket to new taxpayer “bailouts,” McConnell is striking a different tone. Monday on the Senate floor, he [...]

We haven’t heard a lot about conference committees in the past few months. Used to be that the House passed a bill, the Senate passed a bill, and in conference they would iron out their differences. That has not been the norm in the Obama era. On several occasions, particularly with bigger and more controversial [...]

Sen. Chris Dodd appears obsessed with getting a bipartisan financial reform package through the Senate Banking Committee, no matter if it makes a mockery of reform, no matter if it includes virtually nothing to protect consumers or deal with the problem of “too big to fail” financial firms. He’s already seeking to drop the Volcker [...]

Barney Frank is now calling for hearings on the New York Federal Reserve’s role in instructing AIG to hide information from federal regulators. His effort at protecting Tim Geithner comes with claiming that he was just a stooge for the Bush Administration. Representative Barney Frank said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s 2008 order [...]

This is big news. It’s one thing for a few wayward Congressmen to talk about restoring Glass-Steagall protections, and quite another when one of the regional Federal Reserve Presidents endorses it. Thomas Hoenig of the Kansas City Fed has been better than most Fed Presidents during the crisis, even pushing for some kind of nationalization [...]

I doubt it. But it’s interesting to see the parallels between the Washington Post’s reporting on how Chris Dodd’s banking committee is moving to a financial regulation deal, and this Bloomberg story on Wall Street’s nervousness about Glass-Stegall II. In both cases, momentum is growing for a bill that can pass the Senate that would [...]