Update 638 — House Democrats OfferCongressional Stock Trading Ban Bill After months of negotiations, House Democrats yesterday introduced legislation, the Combating Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, to impose the tightest restrictions yet on trading stocks by senior government officials, members of Congress, and their families. The bill may go to the House Rules …
Two signal events occurred in the financial policy space this week. The big bank CEO hearings this week in the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees are becoming an annual event featuring both chieftains of banking and important consumers of other public policy issues. CEOs of seven major U.S. banks appeared before Congress and …
Update 636 — The Crypto Commodities: How and When to Regulate a New Market? The Fed just this afternoon voted to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points as expected (full coverage on Friday), with immediate impact on the regulated capital markets as well as the unregulated ones. In the last year, the unregulated crypto …
Update 635 — Democrats Dodge a Bullet:Biden’s Been Working OT on the Railroad Yesterday, President Biden announced a tentative agreement between major freight rail carriers and unions representing the nation’s freight workers. The announcement came just one day before a strike shutting down the freight rail system. Disruptions to shipments caused by a strike could …
Update 634: CPI Moves SidewaysThe Good News in Inflation Picture Looking at news headlines about and the markets’ response to yesterday’s Consumer Price Index Report for August, you might think inflation is skyrocketing unabated. That might sell, but under the hood are a vertical drop in consumer gas prices, a drop in producer prices, and …
Update 633 — 2022 Congressional EndorsementsPrimary Winners in AZ, FL, MD, MI, NY, WA, WI Over the summer, shifting tides have lifted congressional Democratic midterm prospects across the board. Landmark legislative accomplishments, inflation slowing, and outrage from overturning Roe v. Wade have all contributed. Add strong Democratic candidates with great fundraising numbers and you can …
Update 632 — STOCK 2.0 Working GroupOffers Principles; Congress Urged to Act Late yesterday, a bipartisan working group of House members published a letter to House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren outlining provisions the group seeks in a compromise STOCK 2.0 bill. As the fall legislative session begins in earnest for Congress in the next …
Update 631 — Overhaul Talks Over for Now,What’s Next on Democrats’ Tax Agenda? When Congress passed and President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, numerous tax provisions were included — increased funding for the IRS, a 15 percent corporate minimum tax, a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks — but they did …
Update 630 — A Signal, Suddenly Sick SectorBut More Espousing than Acting on Housing Almost overnight, the housing market is seeing a rapid cool down with no trough in sight. The market for both sales and rentals is in a tailspin aggravated by the Fed’s tightening monetary policy. This volatility only emphasizes the instability within …
Update 629 — Biden’s Dollars for ScholarsCancels $10K in Debt; Long-Term in Doubt Within the hour, with the current student loan payment moratorium due to expire on August 31, President Biden announced another extension of the payment moratorium until December 31 and the cancellation of $10,000 of debt per borrower making less than $125,000 annually …
