As part of the broader push to strengthen regulation of the financial industry, two agencies with sometimes conflicting responsibilities and rules joined forces to see how harmonizing their efforts might be effective in, among other things, protecting against fraud and forcing foreign trade organizations to register with them before doing business within the United States. However, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released yesterday, highlights that the two agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), did not assess how they could cover gaps in the agencies’ authorities to oversee derivatives—a central part ...
Continue readingNew TARP watchdog report cites poor progress and several fraud investigations
The Office of the Special Inspector General of the Troubles Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) released a quarterly report today
stating that although, Wall Street is beginning to regain its footing,
Main Street has been showing “disturbingly persistent” signs of
distress.
While, TARP recipients have paid back $180.8 billion, taxpayers are still expected to shoulder a $127 billion loss. The losses incurred come from the $50 billion given to AIG, the $31 billion to the automotive industry and $49 to the housing market.
According to the report even though "the financial system appears to be stabilizing and record profits are ...
Continue readingHow many stimulus jobs does it take to change a light bulb?
Pointing out flaws in Recovery.gov data is getting to be like shooting fish in a barrel (see here, here, here, here, here and here for examples). While reporters had to dig out those examples, a handful of records do the work for you.
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