Janet Yellen on Financial Reform

I am not a subscriber to Time. Therefore I can't read the entire interview with new Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen. I did find her remarks on Dodd-Frank fascinating.

"I think Dodd-Frank is good roadmap and lays out most of the steps that are necessary. But we may also need to take some further steps that have not been taken yet."

I can't imagine Yellen getting appointed as Federal Reserve chair when Tim Geithner was Treasury Secretary. Geither was successful in derailing Elizabeth Warren's nomination. Geithner would have a heart attack if he heard a Federal Reserve chair advocate for more financial reform.

Wages Aren't Keeping Up With Cost of Living In Florida

A report released by the Alliance for a Just Society finds that current wages do not keep up with the cost of living.

The National Job Gap: 7 Job-Seekers for Every Job that Pays Above the Low-Wage Threshold: For every projected job opening above a low-wage threshold of $15 an hour, there were 7 job-seekers in 2012.

Nearly 18 Million Job-Seekers Out of Luck: With 20.8 million job-seekers and 2.9 million projected job openings that pay better than $15 an hour in 2012, there were 17.9 million more job-seekers than jobs that pay above the low-wage threshold.

An Increasing Share of Low-Wage Jobs since End of Great Recession: In terms of actual employment rather than projected openings, the share of U.S. jobs that pay below the $15 an hour low-wage threshold increased from 36.55% in 2009 to 39.45% in 2012. There were 51.4 million low-wage jobs in 2012.

“Jobless Recovery” Masks Loss of Higher-Wage Jobs, Replacement with Low-Wage Jobs: The number of jobs in occupational categories with median wages above $15 an hour dropped by 4 million from 2009 to 2012, masked by an increase of 3.6 million jobs with median wages below $15 an hour.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed out that the minimum wage hasn't kept up with productivity. If the minimum wage did keep up with productivity the minimum wage would be $22.00 hr.

Shocking News: Elizabeth Warren Doesn't Like Larry Summers

GottaLaff has some great quotes of Elizabeth Warren mocking Lawrence Summers. Warren shared her disdain for Summers with journalist Ron Suskind.

Warren criticized the Obama administration for not cracking down on big banks, and she compared his advisers — including Summers specifically — unfavorably to a country in South America that decades ago used government funds to try to prevent banks from going under.

“Tim [Geithner] and Larry’s whole plan is just like Argentina in the 1980s,” Warren told author Ron Suskind in September 2009, while he was working on “Confidence Men,” a book on the aftermath of the financial collapse. “There was this giant hole marked ‘Banks’ and the government just dumped money in that hole, as much as they had, while they lied about it. That’s what Larry thinks: that the US is Argentina!”

While Warren and Suskind were waiting at a terminal in Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Warren began to sing, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” Several started to applaud, and she modified the verse, with Summers in the role of Eva Peron.

“Why not?” Warren said with a laugh. “He might understand things better as a woman.”

Elizabeth Warren Destroys CNBC

CNBC loves backing Wall Street and the big banks. People are becoming aware of this and CNBC's ratings are tanking.

The Squawk Box attempted to tear Elizabeth Warren for proposing to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act. That would mean the commercial and investment banks would be separated. Obviously, the Street does not like this and CNBC was going to defend the status quo. The Squawk Box was at a loss when Warren pointed out there was no major financial the crash when the Glass-Steagall Act was in place. Charles P. Pierce of Esquire summed it up best.

My god, this is a kicking of the ass. Sooner or later, they're going to realize that you really do have to bring the A-game on this stuff to the Senior Senator, or she is going to smile her Okie smile and the hook is going to come off the jab and, as the great Jimmy Breslin once put it, you will leave the ring in a blanket. She does mean business. Someone should start to believe that.

To Big to Prosecute is A Myth

Attorney General Eric Holder made news earlier this year when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the big banks are too big too to prosecute.

I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy, and I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large.

The recent House financial services committee hearing revealed that the Department of Justice based this assumption on no empirical evidence.

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have neither conducted nor received any analyses that would show whether criminal charges against large financial institutions would harm the economy, potentially undermining a key DOJ argument for why the world’s biggest banks have escaped indictment.

Testimony by a top Justice official and fresh documents made public on Wednesday during a House financial services committee hearing revealed that financial regulators and the Treasury Department did not provide warnings to prosecutors weighing the economic consequences or fallout in the financial system of criminal indictments against large financial groups. DOJ also could find no records that would substantiate its previous claims that it weighed potentially negative economic or financial impacts when considering criminal charges, said Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division.

This is video Sen. Elizabeth Warren during her first Banking Committee hearing. Warren questioned financial regulators on when was the last time they took a major bank to trial. The answer they all the regulators gave is none. This was prior to the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Warren serves on the

The Obama administration has no interest in prosecuting major financial institutions. The Senate Judiciary Committee reveals that the Justice Department never had studies conducted on what the economic impact would be if major financial institutions were prosecuted. Holder never had the studies done because he never wanted to run the risk of an answer that would be unacceptable to the White House.

Democracy For Now Supports Students Loan Fairness Act

Democracy For America is running a petition in support of Elizabeth Warren's bill Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act.

Get this: Student loan interest rates are about to double to 6.8 percent. But big banks? They’re getting a sweet deal on borrowing money from the Fed: 0.75 percent.

No, that’s not a typo. Students will be paying 900 percent more than the biggest banks on Wall Street to borrow money.

Our biggest banks don’t deserve another sweetheart deal. And educated young Americans looking for jobs, and looking to build a future for themselves, don’t deserve to see their interest rates skyrocket.

The text of Warren's remarks.

Warren's legislation would direct the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to make available low interest student loans available through the Federal Reserve System. Warren's concern is that students will be buried in debt if Congress allows student loan rates to increase. On July 1st, student loan rates will increase from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats should hammer Republicans on this issue. Republicans can't afford to lose more young voters.

Democracy For America sent out this email to its supporters.

Senators Tammy Baldwin and Kirsten Gillibrand have signed onto our campaign to keep student loan interest rates from doubling -- joining more than 100,000 other Democracy for America members demanding we treat our students as well as the big Wall Street banks.

Let's see how many more Democratic senators Democracy For America and activists can get on board.

Quote of the Day

"This is the day we remember St. Patrick. Who legend has it drove the snakes out of Ireland. Unfortunately, too many of them went to Wall Street."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in (Southie) South Boston.

Elizabeth Warren Wins Senate Banking Committee Seat

Ryan Grim reports that Elizabeth Warren has won a seat on the Senate Banking Committee.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly two years after Wall Street waged a successful campaign to keep consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren from running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the incoming senator will be tapped to serve on the Banking Committee, according to four sources familiar with the situation. It's a victory for progressives who battled to win her a seat on the panel that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking regulations.

I have no doubt that the White House, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are receiving angry phone calls from Wall Street executives right now. It will be fun to watch the reaction from the talking heads on CNBC.

Kudos to Sen. Jack Reed for helping get Warren on the Banking Committee.

Elizabeth Warren Wins

NBC declares Elizabeth Warren the next junior Senator of Massachusetts. Many people thought that Warren never had a chance with this race. Warren is the netroots biggest victory. Markos Moulitsas made electing Warren a top priority.

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas explained that of all the House and Senate elections this year, her race was the number one priority among progressives.

“Nobody else even comes close,” he said. “We put her up with [Sens.] Franken, Merkley, Boxer, Brown, the two Vermont senators – the solid core of progressives.”

Warren raised $6,521,723 on Actblue. That is a staggering number.

Bill Clinton Robocall For Elizabeth Warren

I'm glad to see former President Bill Clinton giving his support to Elizabeth Warren in a robocall. The TPM Poll Tracker has Warren at 50.1 percent to Scott Brown's 47.1 percent. TPM has a list of polls that show Warren leading Brown. You know Brown is in trouble when he is behind in the Rasmussen poll.

Quote of the Day

"GE pays nothing in taxes and does legally while we say students should take on more debt or seniors have to live on less."

Elizabeth Warren

Massachusetts Nurses Association Endorses Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren has yet to officially announce that she is running for the United States. However, the Massachusetts Nurses Association feel so strongly about Warren that they have decided to endorse her potential candidacy.

"Even though she is not yet an official candidate, the MNA Board has taken the unprecedented step of voting to support her," said Donna Kelly-Williams, RN and president of the MNA. "Her dedication to the nation's middle class, which she has demonstrated through her work as a faithful consumer advocate both locally and nationally, reflects one of the MNA's key goals: Restoring a basic standard of living for working people by creating financial remedies that hold Wall Street accountable while protecting those who live and work on Main Street USA."

More.

"For too long now we have seen the results of Wall Street controlling the economy," said Karen Higgins, RN and co-president of the NNU. "It is time for the 'Main Street' values of financial equality and fairness to take precedence, and Elizabeth Warren is the person to lead us in that direction. She will go to Washington D.C. not to serve the interests of Wall Street, but to serve the interests of working people in Massachusetts and across America."

Warren has spent years fighting for working-class families and highlighting the need for financial reform and meaningful consumer protection. Following the financial crisis of 2008, she became the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created to oversee the U.S. banking bailout. Warren was also a long-time advocate for the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and helped establish it following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary.

Added Kelly-Williams, "We support Elizabeth because we want to help heal America, and we know that she will work with us in our fight to rebuild and restore Main Street."

Warren has formed an exploratory committee and is likely to run. The early endorsement is a sign of how much good will is felt for Warren by the Left. It will be interesting to see if that progressive supoort translates into strong online fundraising.

Team Obama Opposed Elizabeth Warren Nomination

I like to see how Obamabots frame this. Huffington Post reporter
Shahien Nasiripour cites sources that the Obama administration never had any intention of nominating Elizabeth Warren for the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. In 2010, Sen. Bernie Sanders asked President Barack Obama if would nominate Warren.

Last summer, during a White House meeting with first-term Senate Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, asked Obama whether he'd nominate Warren for the role.

Obama held up a half-full glass of water and told him: "That's the problem with you progressives. You see this as half-empty."

Obama's tone towards Sanders makes it obvious that the president does not view himself as a progressive. Wall Street got a bailout. Americans are being foreclosed upon through illegal means. The President campaigned on change and gets pissed when people call him out for protecting the dysfunctional financial system.

Rahm Emanuel made it clear that he did not want Warren confirmed.

Last July, the night before a Senate vote on the administration-backed bill to reform financial regulation, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told reporters that he was still unsure how he’d vote and was concerned about who might be named to run the soon-to-be-created consumer unit.

Hearing the news, Emanuel took the temperature of the administration on Warren's nomination and reported back to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that it was cool, according to Senate sources with knowledge of the call.

“We don’t like her either,” the then-White House chief of staff told the Nevada Democrat.

Ben Nelson's lack of support was unsurprising. Chris Dodd. Part of Dodd's problem was Warren publicly pushed back against Dodd to not soften the financial reform bill. Dodd was obsessed with getting bipartisan support for a financial reform bill that no Republican had any intention of voting for. What is it about Beltway Democrats that are obsessed with bipartisanship?

Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is pro-corporatist. It wasn't surprising that he didn't support Warren's nomination. Warren also took Geithner to task for not knowing where money for credit default swaps went. AIG sold swaps and then couldn't cover the bets when the market crashed.

Elizabeth Warren v. Patrick McHenry

Youtube user MainStreet Insider gives a description.

On Tuesday, May 24th 2011, during a hearing in a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, Chairman Patrick McHenry (NC-10) ended the hearing by calling Elizabeth Warren a liar. It was a messy and confusing ending for all watching. Warren had stated that the Chairman's staff and her, after a late-night, last-minute schedule change, had agreed to let her leave by 2:15 to meet other obligations. You can see the look of shock on her face when he outright calls her a liar.

The short answer is McHenry moved the hearing date around several times and then scheduled Warren for a 15 minute hearing. To top matters off is that McHenry had no one to ask Warren questions. McHenry then accuses Warren of being a liar. Warren's jaw drops at the 1:03 mark of the video.

My question is why is Warren needed to speak to a subcommittee? Subcommittees usually kick matters up to the major committees.

McHenry is a very unserious man. How unserious? How about getting himself photographed grabbing onto the breasts of Republican activist Jackie Sullens.



Besides the silly lollipop McHenry is holding - notice the alcohol the young Republicans are holding. Well, McHenry got into trouble for serving alcohol to minors.

During this time, McHenry was charged with getting many of these underage College Republicans drunk and partying with them. According to Affidavidts with the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agency, McHenry was closely involved (or potentially hosted) a party with underage students after a 2004 Catawba County Lincoln Day dinner, in which beer and wine liberally flowed, and McHenry was photoed holding a lollypop with drunk students clearly holding cans of alcohol (right). According to statements by the Alcohol Law Enforcement agency, the students asserted that the alcohol was provided by the McHenry camp, though this is questionable. Despite the source of the alcohol, it was clear through reports that McHenry was fully aware of both the alcohol consumption and the age of many of the staffers.

I am willing to take Warren's word over McHenry's, anyday.

Sen. Shelby Wants to Gut Financial Reform

Richard Shelby would most likely become chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance if Republicans take over the Senate. Shelby made it clear to ABC News that he plans to gut the Financial Reform bill.

"The bill is so sweeping and such a game changer in many ways that it's incumbent upon us to revisit it," Shelby said at the Reuters Washington Summit.

Yes, things were working so well before. That is why taxpayers were left paying for the bank bailout. Financial institutions were taking huge risks with naked credit default swaps. AIG sold too many naked CDS. AIG was unable to pay all the financial institutions that bought CDS. AIG nearly went under and other troubled financial institutions could not get the CDS revenue owed to them.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake and Tresury Sec. had this revealing conversation about AIG.

On Wednesday, September 17th, a day after the Fed agreed to inject eighty-five billion dollars of taxpayers’ money into A.I.G., Bernanke asked Paulson to accompany him to Capitol Hill and make the case for a congressional bailout of the entire banking industry. “We can’t keep doing this,” Bernanke told Paulson. “Both because we at the Fed don’t have the necessary resources and for reasons of democratic legitimacy, it’s important that the Congress come in and take control of the situation.”

Shelby wants to maintain the status quo.

"I don't believe it's good for business, it's not good for the financial sector and ultimately I don't believe it's going to be good for credit for a lot of people who need it. It's gonna cost," Shelby said.

I have no problem with the free market and people making money. My concern is systemic risk that could cause a depression. There is a difference between encouraging free market growth and reckless financial practices. Shelby would be encouraging the latter.

Shelby has set his sights on the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"The consumer agency bothers me the most," said Shelby, who failed to reach a compromise with Democrats and voted against the bill. "I thought the creation of it and the way it was created was a mistake," he said.

Notice Shelby didn't offer an alternative to make sure that consumers aren't vulnerable to shady financial practices. It is absolute insanity for Republicans to think different results will be achieved using the same faulty financial practices.

Shelby saves his most wingnuttery attack for Elizabeth Warren.

"I believe she's got a big ax to grind and she's sharpening that ax," said Shelby. "I don't think that you need somebody in a position like that with all these preconceived ideas and I believe she has a lot of them."

Warren is serving the American people and not special interests. Warren hasn't been afraid to put Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner in the hot seat. Sen. Chris Dodd has been against Warren's nomination. Warren is scaring members of both political parties. She must be doing something right.

Quote of the Day

"The idea for this agency was Elizabeth Warren's. She's a dear friend of mine. She's somebody I've known since I was in law school. And I have been in conversations with her. She is a tremendous advocate for this idea. his is a big task standing up this entire agency. So I'll have an announcement soon about how we're going to move forward.

"I have had conversations with Elizabeth over these last couple of months. But I'm not going to make an official announcement until it's ready."

President Barack Obama

Greg Sargent seems to think Obama is hinted that he will appoint Warren as the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I will believe it when I see it. If true it is great news.

Just Don't Call It A Stimulus Package

President Barack Obama is proposing to extend the research and development tax credit. The problem is the tax credit for R&D would cost an estimated $100 billion in tax revenue. Obama is hoping the R&D tax credit will spur development. The President will have to figure what he will have to cut to help reduce the deficit. The White House is also considering infrastructure spending and to free up credit for small businesses.

Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel explained to Steve Chiotakis why there is such difficulty for small businesses to get loans.

Chiotakis: So Professor, if small businesses generate, what, two of three jobs in this economy, doesn't this fly in the face of the necessity of bailing out the banks in the first place?

Warren: Well you know, that's really the irony here isn't it? Remember, in the fall of 2008, Secretary Paulson went to Congress and the American people and said, we need this $700 billion bailout, because if we put the money into the banks, that's how it will make it on into the real economy. And the evidence shows that simply didn't happen; we put the money into big Wall Street banks and that's where it stayed.

Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner extended TARP until October of 2010. However, small businesses are still having a tough time getting loans. Geithner has not been able to get small banks to paticipate. The Independent Community Bankers of America gave Geithner a list of demands that must be meant before these banks will paticipate. Why doesn't Geithner just set up a temporary loan guarantee funds for small businesses? The small banks don't want to take the financial risk. Small businesses can get loans through the federal government to expand and hiring extra labor.

Duncan Black and Mike Konczal question how much job creation and economic growth will come from R&D tax credits. The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa received $20 million in stimulus money. Director Thomas Sellers told TBO.com that the stimulus money is helping Moffitt produce fifty patent a year and five start-up companies.

As a longterm policy, helping spur research is smart. It isn't going to turn the economy around. What this tells me is Geithner and Obama's economic team has run out of ideas.

Elizabeth Warren Music Video

RC Productions has made a music video in tribute of Elizabeth Warren. The music video urges the appointment of Warren to the new consumer financial protection agency. Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner and Sen. Christopher Dodd have opposed her nomination. As chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, Warren questioned Geithner's commitment to the mortgage crisis and fought Dodd's attempts to water down the financial reform bill. What we are seeing is two very thin-skinned men looking for political payback. I find it interesting Warren's two leading critics are men that fought to protect AIG executive bonuses.

You can watch the Warren music video at the Huffington Post.