The Los Angeles Times published an article in its Science and Environment section today that outlined the politics behind the... View Article
Continue readingInfluence Explored: Corporations lobby for tax breaks
An article on the front page of the New York Times yesterday reported on the pressure some major corporations—such as Microsoft—... View Article
Continue readingInfluence Explored
An article published yesterday in Roll Call highlights a new website published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—one of Washington’s... View Article
Continue readingThe Pentagon’s Big Contractors Lobby Big and Get in Big Trouble
Recently, the Pentagon released the list of its top 10 contractors for 2010, all which spent significant amounts of money... View Article
Continue readingMajor banks use one lobbyist to team up on Dodd-Frank
The international law firm, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton LLP, is lobbying Congress on behalf of three of the world’s biggest financial institutions regarding the derivatives market -- one of the major issues tackled by the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, according to disclosure forms filed this year.
A lawyer with the firm, Edward Rosen is lobbying Congress on behalf of Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo regarding the Commodity Futures Trade Commission’s (CFTC) proposal to regulate swaps dealers, increase transparency in the derivatives market and force standardized derivatives into a clearinghouse to ultimately lower the risk incurred from ...
Continue readingFreshman lawmaker works to repeal transparency effort in Dodd-Frank
Last week members of the Capital Markets Subcommittee forwarded legislation to repeal a portion of Dodd-Frank that requires big banks to disclose income information for all of its employees onto the full Committee on Financial Services for consideration.
The Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act, H.R. 1062 was introduced in March, 2011 and has a long way to go. But if the Act passes it will repeal Section 953 b of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is meant to increase transparency by forcing banks to disclose the median income for its employees.
According to members ...
Continue readingWall Street revolver takes regulatory insight to Bank of America
One Wall Street revolver will continue a very successful post-regulatory agency career with a newly created position at Bank of America, the nation's largest bank.
Gary Lynch, who was the head of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1980’s, most recently left Morgan Stanley where he was the financial giant’s vice chairman and before that an executive vice president and chief legal officer for the firm. Prior to his time at Morgan Stanley he was the chief legal counsel for Credit Suisse – an international financial services company.
Lynch will now be the global chief ...
Continue readingLobbyists move into unlimited money territory
Jeffery Scott Bensing, a registered lobbyist and former Chief of Staff to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., filed paperwork in January with the Federal Election Commission to create the Freedom Path Action Network, a new independent expenditure only committee.These committees--also known as Super PACs because they can raise unlimited funds from any source and spend it to support or oppose federal candidates--played critical roles in some races in the 2010 mid-term elections.
Through his firm, SB Strategic Consulting, Bensing's represents a small group of clients from varying industries including the online travel site Expedia.com. On behalf of these ...
Continue readingBernanke is positive about economy, despite poor markets
The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, said he believes the economy will continue to grow this year despite high unemployment rates, weak job growth and an “exceptionally weak housing sector”.
In the Fed's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, Bernanke highlighted the positive direction the economy has taken citing as evidence the real GDP's return to where it was before the financial crisis occurred.
In today’s hearing conducted by the Senate Banking Committee, the focus seemed to be on the Fed’s decision to buy securities issued by the Department of Treasury and the effectiveness of that ...
Continue readingBig lobbyists battle for big and small clients over Dodd Frank fee cap
As the House Committee on Financial Services readies for next week's hearings to discuss new regulations for the banking industry, lobbyists lined up to battle over the changes, extending a battle between small banks, big banks and big retailers.
In a letter submitted to Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the American Bankers Association said the potential changes, "will cause severe harm to the entire banking industry and, in particular, to community-based banks and the communities they serve."
The ABA's dire warning is a response to proposed regulations by the Federal Reserve on debit card and credit card fees ...
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