Financial Crisis

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

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

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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Topics: Financial Crisis, Financial Reform, Financial Regulation, Peter Wallison

Peter Wallison

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

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

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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Topics: Darrell Issa, Financial Crisis, Financial Reform, Financial Regulation, Peter Wallison

Wall Street

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

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

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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Topics: Financial Reform, Financial Regulation, Tea Parties, Wall Street

Financial Reform

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

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

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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Topics: Financial Reform, Financial Regulation, Lobbyists

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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Topics: Fabrice Tourre, Financial Reform, Financial Regulation, Goldman Sachs, Securities and Exchange Commission, Subprime Mortgages

Pay-Day Lenders

In The Loop: The Pay-Day Lenders' Ties To Powerful Beltway Influence-Peddlers

Zachary Roth | March 22, 2010, 10:32AM

We told you last week about the sophisticated Washington lobbying and PR operation that has helped the $42 billion-a-year pay-day lending industry water down provisions in the financial reform bill currently before Congress. But it looks like the industry's ties to a host of heavy-hitting, and sometimes controversial, Beltway players are even more extensive.

Those players, it appears, include a prominent and well-regarded DC consulting firm founded by top former Clinton administration staffers, a key editor at the Andrew-Breitbart-created website that hosted James O'Keefe's ACORN "exposes," Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, and a notorious corporate lobbyist known as "Dr. Evil." Taken together, the pay-day lenders' connections in the capital make clear that the industry has quietly -- and in a remarkably short time -- enmeshed itself into a network of Washington influence-peddlers skilled at putting a favorable sheen on a host of corporate causes.

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Topics: ACORN, Andrew Breitbart, Financial Regulation, FreedomWorks, Glover Park Group, James O'Keefe, Lobbyists, Michael Flynn, Pay-Day Lenders, Rick Berman

Pay-Day Lenders

With Heavy Washington Presence, Pay-Day Lenders Sway Lawmakers, Attack Critics

Zachary Roth | March 17, 2010, 12:39PM

The weakening of the Senate proposal on financial reform unveiled this week, after lobbying from the pay-day lending industry, should come as little surprise. In recent years, the industry has built a sophisticated Washington lobbying and public relations operation, which it has used to promote its interests, savage its critics, and shape the public debate.

The $42-billion-a-year pay-day lending industry offers short-term loans often designed to tide customers over until their next pay-check. But the loans, which can carry interest rates of as much as 400 percent on an annualized basis, lead many working-class borrowers to end up digging themselves deeper into debt. As a result, the pay-day lenders have become a prime target of consumer advocates and their allies on Congress, who accuse the industry of preying on struggling Americans, and have in recent years sought ways to rein it in.

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Topics: Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Lobbyists, Pay-Day Lenders, Public Relations, W. Allan Jones, Wright Andrews

Pay-Day Lenders

After Lobbying By Pay-Day Lenders, Dodd Bill Is Weakened

Zachary Roth | March 16, 2010, 12:33PM

As we've reported, the pay-day lending industry -- one of the most predatory players corners in the modern financial system -- has recently been hard at work lobbying to water down provisions in the financial regulatory reform bill currently in the Senate. (We also told you about the industry's key lobbyist, who used to be the sub-prime industry's man in Washington.)

Now Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has unveiled the reform proposal that will create the basis for the Senate bill. And it looks like the industry's lobbying, up to a point, has paid off -- although it's still unhappy that it's being seriously regulated at all.

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Topics: Chris Dodd, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Lobbyists, Pay-Day Lenders, Senate Banking Committee, Wall Street