The change in tone came as the Security and Exchange Commission's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs for allegedly defrauding investors continued to dominate headlines, underscoring public anger at Wall Street and reminding lawmakers of the potential consequences of inaction. In the corridors of the Capi
On MSNBC on Tuesday, Time's editor-at-large Mark Halperin – not exactly a leftwing partisan – refused to defend the GOP despite being compelled to, instead accusing Republican leaders of either "willfully misreading the bill" or engaging in a "cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving
Besides the March 2007 letter to the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., Treasury secretary in the Bush administration, Mr. Obama as a candidate gave speeches calling for tougher regulations, one at the Nasdaq stock exchange in September 2007 and another in March 2008 at the Coo
Luntz’s advice to them was to assert that the bill, irrespective of what it actually said (yes, really), was a permanent bailout bill. That’s good framing advice, and so even though Chris Dodd’s legislation (a) has prudential regulation to make it less likely that firms go bust
Goldman Sachs was at the centre of a political storm last night as senior Republicans began an investigation into the possibility that the White House colluded with Wall Street’s regulator over the decision to sue the bank for alleged fraud.
It’s another example of the tremendous solidarity that the corporate executive class in America displays. It’s not absolutely uniform, of course, but to a tremendous extent Big Finance & Big Pollution can count on their corporate brethren and nearly everyone is united by their passion for union-
When Wall Street is not mentioned, net public support (percentage in favor minus percentage opposed) for banking reform legislation is +3 points, but when it is mentioned, net support is +14. [...By contrast, Republicans show greater support for reform when “Wall Street” is invoked than when it
I think we’re going to see all the hard-hitting rhetoric Krugman could dream of. But I continue to think that people overestimate the good that kind of thing will do. The fundamental problem Democrats keep running up against is that there are zero incumbent Senate Republicans facing tough re-elect
And let’s be clear: there’s a sort of tribal thing going on (and I don’t necessarily mean race, although that’s part of it). The hard right has managed to convince a large number of Americans that it consists of people like them, whereas progressives are alien and untrustworthy; in the face
Insurers, hedge funds and other financial institutions must also pay the taxes, the IMF argues, despite them being less implicated in the recent crisis. If they were not included, activities currently carried out by banks would be reclassified as, for example, insurance or hedge-fund services to esc
The IMF is proposing a double-tax regime for banks that would fund future bailouts and penalise both the profits and pay of lenders. The first tax, a Financial Stability Contribution, would be a levy to fund any future government support. The second would be a Financial Activities Tax on the sum of
Last October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb “sacks,” as in looting and pillaging. The student replies, “Goldman Sachs.”
It’s a truly shameless performance: Mr. McConnell is pretending to stand up for taxpayers against Wall Street while in fact doing just the opposite. In recent weeks, he and other Republican leaders have held meetings with Wall Street executives and lobbyists, in which the G.O.P. and the financial
Then earlier this week, GOP Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn met with leading bankers and promised to defend their interests, asking only for huge sums of cash in exchange. Today, all 41 Senate Republicans have signed a letter promising to oppose the Democrats’ Wall Street reform bil
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Opinion | Why We Regulate (Published 2012)
Bill on Finance Wins Approval of Senate Panel (Published 2010)
Once critical of financial regulation bill, Republicans change their tone
A rare Republican surrender on financial reform | Sahil Kapur
Obama Looks to Close Sale on Financial Reform (Published 2010)
Matthew Yglesias » Politifact Deems McConnell Bailout Rhetoric “False”
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The Times & The Sunday Times
Head Lock
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Matthew Yglesias » Plan B
Lucy And The Football
BBC News - IMF proposes two big new bank taxes to fund bail-outs
The Times & The Sunday Times
Opinion | Looters in Loafers (Published 2010)
Opinion | The Fire Next Time (Published 2010)
Matthew Yglesias » The Battle Lines