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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (114753)	6/4/2012 4:35:58 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

>> There were enough crimes committed under existing laws to put most of the CEOs behind bars. Could you cite a few specific examples of specific crimes that were committed and by whom, just so we're clear on what you're referring to? It is easy to stand back and say, "Oh, those guys are criminals" but it is helpful, for purposes of discussion, to identify who did what, exactly.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (114753)	6/5/2012 7:31:38 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 149317

Nobel Winner Stiglitz Sees More Recession Odds in Romney Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the election of Mitt Romney as president in November would “significantly” raise the odds of a recession because it would herald a shift to a much tighter budget. History shows that the adoption of fiscal austerity when an economy is weak can have disastrous consequences, as happened in the U.S. in 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression, Stiglitz told Bloomberg editors and reporters in New York yesterday. Republican candidate Romney risks making that same sort of mistake by backing a plan to slash the budget deficit, he said. “The Romney plan is going to slow down the economy, worsen the jobs deficit and significantly increase the likelihood of a recession,” said Stiglitz, who served as chairman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1997. In contrast, President Barack Obama “recognizes the need to stimulate the economy,” Stiglitz said. He listed two other “very big differences” between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates: Obama sees inequality as a “significant problem” for the country and is committed to raising taxes on the rich to help address it. Romney does not, according to Stiglitz, author of a new book entitled, “The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future.” Misguided Austerity The Columbia University professor argued that European nations are also misguided in pursuing fiscal austerity as a way to resolve the region’s sovereign debt crisis and said there was a “very high probability” that more than one country will drop out of the 17-nation euro zone. In the longer run, the New York-based professor sees a “rump” of countries led by Germany and possibly France retaining the euro as their common currency. “It probably means that the euro is going to go up” eventually because of the strength of the economies that will remain in the currency compact, he added. The euro rose for a second day versus the dollar after falling to its lowest level in almost two years last week. The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.2499 at 5 p.m. New York time yesterday. It fell to as low as $1.2288 on June 1, the weakest level since July 1, 2010. Federal Reserve Stiglitz said that there is little that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke can do to help the slow-growing U.S. economy through monetary policy. Instead, the Fed chief should focus on efforts to get banks to provide more credit to the economy. “Providing more liquidity doesn’t force them to lend,” he said. The U.S. central bank has cut its federal funds rate target to zero to a quarter percentage point and more than tripled the size of its balance sheet since the start of September 2008 in an effort to promote a rapid recovery of the economy from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 1.9 percent in the first quarter, after expanding 3 percent in the final three months of 2011. Stiglitz said the Fed should use its regulatory powers to limit the ability of banks to make profits through trading of derivatives and other means so as to encourage them to “focus on lending,” including to small and medium-sized businesses. “You want them to have to go back to the boring business of lending,” the economics professor said. Dodd-Frank He criticized the Dodd-Frank financial services legislation that Obama signed into law in 2010. The legislation, named after former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, does not correct the problem of too-big-to-fail banks that the government feels compelled to rescue, according to Stiglitz. “We need to do more to reduce excessive risk-taking” by the banks, Stiglitz said, adding that was highlighted by the $2 billion trading loss reported last month by JPMorgan Chase & Co. To contact the reporter on this story: Rich Miller in Washington at rmiller28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net Find out more about Bloomberg for iPad: m.bloomberg.com

To: RetiredNow who wrote (114753)	6/6/2012 1:53:49 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

House Republicans Seek Cuts in Financial Regulators By Silla Brush - Jun 5, 2012 6:24 PM ET bloomberg.com U.S. House Republicans are seeking to cut the budget of the main derivatives regulator and subject a new consumer financial protection agency to additional funding scrutiny in spending plans panned by Democrats. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s fiscal 2013 budget would be cut by $25 million to $180 million, a level about 42 percent below President Barack Obama’s request. Under spending legislation set for committee votes today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be funded by congressional appropriations each year instead of its current system of transfers from the Federal Reserve. The spending measures “instill stringent oversight to ensure the proper and appropriate spending of every tax dollar, particularly within government agencies that have shown recklessness in the past,” Representative Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the appropriations committee, said in a statement. The Democrat-led Senate has yet to release spending measures for financial regulatory agencies. Legislation would need to be reconciled and passed by both congressional chambers before heading to Obama for signature. ‘Unilateral Surrender’ The spending measures are “a declaration of unilateral surrender to the forces of irresponsibility that wrecked our economy several years ago,” Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and co-author of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, said in a statement. At least $2 billion in derivatives trading losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) demonstrate the need for higher funding levels, according to Frank and Representative Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat and ranking member on the appropriations committee. The CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Justice Department are investigating the losses at JPMorgan. “This investigation is a timely example of why the law was necessary and why the agency should be fully funded,” Dicks said in a statement, referring to the CFTC. The CFTC spending plan would require $32 million to be used for information technology and not on personnel. Congress had to change a budget measure last year because a similar allocation on technology might have led to layoffs at the agency. ‘Significantly Underfunding’ “The result of this bill is to effectively put the interests of Wall Street ahead of those of the American public by significantly underfunding the agency Congress tasked to oversee derivatives,” Gary Gensler, CFTC chairman, said in a statement. Under the legislation, the SEC would have $1.4 billion in funding, an increase of $50 million from current levels. “I’d be the first to say the SEC needs more resources,” James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University in Washington said in a phone interview. “The problem is the SEC has a long history of misallocating resources. With the money, they hire lawyers not technology people, not markets people.” The bill would give the IRS $11.8 billion, the same as it is receiving this year, denying the administration the 8 percent increase it sought. The IRS is responsible for implementing much of the health care law, and the bill would deny additional funding for that purpose, according to the appropriations committee. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman has said that budget constraints would make it harder for the agency to enforce the tax law and respond to taxpayers’ questions. “Objectively we are the agency that brings in the money to fund the government and so we’re the one agency that has a very substantial return on investment,” he told the subcommittee March 21. “And so I think, you know, we should be treated differently and I think the president’s budget request reflects that.” To contact the reporter on this story: Silla Brush in Washington at sbrush@bloomberg.net