Financial Crisis

AEI Fellow Says Financial Crisis Commission Tried To 'Suppress' Data

Ryan J. Reilly | July 15, 2011, 1:30PM

Peter Wallison

A Republican on the federal commission charged with finding the cause of the nation's financial crisis is pushing back at allegations that he improperly advocated for a repeal of financial regulations. He's flinging back in the faces of his Democratic opponents the charge that he wanted a pre-determined outcome from the panel's report.

Peter Wallison, in an article posted on the conservative group American Enterprise Institute's website, accuses Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Chairman Phil Angelides, a Democrat, of a "concerted effort to suppress" data from Wallison's colleague that they claim showed the government's mortgage policies played a role in the financial crisis.

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Peter Wallison

Republican On Financial Commission Worked To Help GOP Repeal Dodd-Frank

Ryan J. Reilly | July 13, 2011, 4:47PM

Peter Wallison

A Republican on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission tried to get his colleagues to help House GOPers repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, according to documents released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

Democrats released their report on the evidence uncovered by congressional investigators on the same day that Rep. Darrell Issa scrapped a hearing on the FCIC that was supposed to take place. Issa cancelled the hearing because, Democrats said, Republicans uncovered some evidence which didn't fit their narrative.

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Wall Street

Tea Partiers Swept In On Anti-Wall Street Wave Now Pushing Deregulation

Ryan J. Reilly | May 24, 2011, 3:40PM

Wall Street

Tea Party-backed candidates swept into office on the wave of anger over the government's bailout of Wall Street are now bringing in the big bucks from the financial sector at the same time they're lining up to rewrite financial regulations.

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Office of Congressional Ethics

Reports: OCE Probe Focused On Fundraisers, Auto Dealer Exemption

Rachel Slajda | June 16, 2010, 12:14PM

Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC)

The House Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into eight lawmakers is focusing on fundraisers held in the two days before the final vote on financial reform legislation, according to news reports.

According to The Hill, the OCE is specifically looking into a fundraiser held for Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) two days before he pulled an amendment that could have hurt certain auto dealers.

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Financial Reform

Report: 56 Financial Lobbyists Once Worked For Lawmakers Now Negotiating Financial Reform

Eric Lach | June 11, 2010, 1:10PM

United States Capitol

Dozens of financial industry lobbyists have ties to lawmakers serving on the conference committee negotiating financial reform legislation, according to data reported by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics. Among them are seven former chiefs of staff and a total of 16 former employees of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL).

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Judicial Nominations

Progressives To Dems: Get Moving On Judicial Nominations

Zachary Roth | May 12, 2010, 12:26PM

As the Senate gets set to take up Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, the slow pace of confirmation for lower-court nominations is creating vacancies that are gumming up the system and could even pose a long-term threat to President Obama's agenda. In response, some who follow the process are calling on Democrats to get tougher on GOP obstructionism. "We need a Nancy Pelosi in the Senate," said one progressive activist.

After yesterday's confirmations of Jon DeGuilo and Timothy Black to district court judge-ships, the Senate has now confirmed 26 of President Obama's nominees -- compared to 52 at this point in President Bush's tenure. Forty-two nominations are pending -- 20 in committee, and 22 on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, there are currently 102 court vacancies. That's an unprecedented backlog, observers of the process agree.

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Bailout

Bailout: Best Program Evaaah?

Zachary Roth | May 11, 2010, 9:26AM

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

As unpopular government initiatives go, the financial bailout would seem to rank somewhere up there between Prohibition and the Stamp Act.

In the political sphere -- and not just in far-right circles -- it's something close to a consensus view that the bailout was a corrupt giveaway of taxpayers dollars to Wall Street that will leave us deep in the red for decades. As Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) put it after TARP passed: "Only two things are certain: the bill will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to investors who made bad decisions and Wall Street executives; and our children and grandchildren will now face a national debt that is hundreds of billions of dollars higher." Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) was just ousted by state Republicans, who cited his vote for the TARP and derisively nicknamed him "Bailout Bob." And Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has taken to claiming, implausibly, that he only supported the bailout because he was misled about the fact that it was targeted at the financial sector (seriously).

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Stop Too Big To Fail

New Ad: The Big Banks Back Reform, So Let's Kill The Bill (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | May 6, 2010, 9:22AM

A screen shot from a Stop Too Big To Fail ad

The latest TV ad from shady anti-financial reform group Stop Too Big To Fail advocates killing financial reform legislation because, the ad claims, the big banks actually want to see reform happen.

The ad follows the same "bailout, bailout -- BAILOUT!!" script of the group's previous ads, but with a new twist. Now, instead of misrepresenting the position of a progressive economist (as the group did with Simon Johnson and Robert Reich), Stop Too Big To Fail makes the twisted argument that financial reform should be defeated precisely because big bank CEOs have made extremely broad statements of support for a regulatory overhaul.

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Stop Too Big To Fail

Reich Blasts Anti-Reform Group For 'Cynically Distorting' His Words In TV Ad

Justin Elliott | April 27, 2010, 2:07PM

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich

Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich today slammed an anti-financial reform group that is using his name and image in a new television ad for "cynically and purposefully distorting what I said."

As we noted earlier, the group, Stop Too Big To Fail, today announced new ads in three states calling for senators to vote against financial reform. The ad at one point flashes Reich's picture and the female narrator says, "Even President Clinton's secretary of labor said [of the Dodd bill], 'it preserves the possibility that the Fed could launch another bank bailout.'"

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Stop Too Big To Fail

Shady Anti-Financial Reform Outfit Cites Robert Reich In New Ad (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | April 27, 2010, 12:50PM

A screen shot from a Stop Too Big To Fail ad featuring former Labor Secretary Robert Reich

The shady anti-financial reform group Stop Too Big To Fail today announced a new TV advertising push in three key states that features an out-of-context quote from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to bolster its case to kill financial reform.

As TPMmuckraker has reported, Stop Too Big To Fail is the project of a veteran astroturf operation called Consumers for Competitive Choice, and it's using the services of an ad agency that worked with the Swift Boat Vets For Truth in 2004. It has already spent $1.6 million on anti-reform ads and won't say who's funding the group's efforts.

Stop Too Big To Fail previously featured progressive economist Simon Johnson on one of its media conference calls before he realized the goals of the outfit and demanded it stop using his name. Now, Stop Too Big To Fail has turned to using Reich to add credibility to a message designed to sound progressive, while in fact advocating to kill the financial reform legislation.

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Stop Too Big To Fail

Shady Anti-Financial Reform Group Using Ad Agency That Worked For Swift Boat Vets

Justin Elliott | April 23, 2010, 1:54PM

The group Stop Too Big To Fail, which is employing a liberal-sounding message to fight the Wall Street reform legislation, is working with an advertising agency whose past clients include the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and myriad GOP campaigns.

Stop Too Big To Fail this week announced a $1.6 million ad buy in Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. The ads warn of a "bailout fund" and call on senators to "vote against this phony 'financial reform.'" The agency behind that ad is Mentzer Media, according to Kristen Waskie, a staffer at TeleRep, a Philadelphia firm which represents local TV stations and which has placed the financial reform ads in local markets. Waskie tells us the Stop Too Big To Fail ads came out of Mentzer, which is based in Towson, Maryland.

You've probably never heard of Mentzer, -- which describes itself as "expert at zeroing in on the correct audiences, the right markets, identifying the right media, [and] locking in at the right times" -- but in the world of political professionals, it's quite well known.

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Goldman Sachs

SEC Slaps Goldman With Civil Fraud Complaint

Justin Elliott | April 16, 2010, 11:10AM

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors by allegedly "misstating and omitting key facts" in the marketing of a financial product linked to the performance of subprime mortgages right as the housing crisis was beginning to unfold.

The complaint comes down just as the attention of Washington is turning fully to financial reform.

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