20/20 Vision

Puerto Rico Debt Deal (Apr. 4)

Mike & Co. — The House, which is still on recess this week (the Senate is in) continues to march toward Speaker Ryan’s self-imposed April 29 deadline to vote on a legislative solution to deal with the Puerto Rico debt crisis.  Two relevant SCOTUS   cases to be handed down before June further complicate the picture. If a bill cannot be …

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MetLife's De-Designation, Pt. 2 (Apr. 1)

Mike & Co. — Here at the end of a quiet recess, the dust is still settling following the D.C. Federal District Court ruling against the FSOC on Wednesday in the MetLife case, with regulators and businesses speculating about the case’s ultimate disposition, scope, and the implications for TBTF designations going forward.  From a systemic risk perspective, …

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MetLife's De-Designation, Pt. 1 (Mar. 30)

Mike & Co.  — Practically without warning, a U.S. District Court Judge in Washington issued a ruling this morning that would impose the greatest limitation to the scope of Dodd-Frank in the law’s five-year history.   MetLife had challenged the authority of the  Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to designate the firm a SIFI (systemically …

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VAT's Under Discussion  (Mar. 23)

Mike & Co. – In a stark departure from political history since Reagan and Goldwater, the Republican Party this year has struggled to come up with a unified tax message. Perhaps more odd, still, are the abrupt change in tone surrounding the tax debate, from the traditionally robustly pronounced to a muted, tentative, and confused …

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STOCK Act 2.0 (Mar. 22)

Mike & Co. – Last week, legislators in both the House and the Senate proposed regulation in the political intelligence industry to increase the transparency of the relationship between Wall Street and Washington.  In an election where campaign finance and Wall Street issues have been salient themes, the bill and the candidates’ positions on it could turn out to be …

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