Free Republic

We believe the national interest will be best served by President Biden reappointing Jerome Powell to chair the Federal Reserve System. The most important issue facing us today is the enactment of President Biden’s comprehensive program responding not just to the ravages of COVID-19 but to the underlying social and economic problems that have exacerbated its effects. Reappointing Mr. Powell will provide strong support for this essential step. We are not predicting a diminution of the Fed’s independence. Whatever one thinks of the rule that presidents should not tell the Fed what to do, it is clear that Mr. Powell...

A Democratic effort is underway in at least 16 states to overturn restrictions on mail-in balloting and third-party ballot harvesting. A nationwide effort by Democrats is underway in at least 16 states to overturn restrictions on mail-in voting and third-party ballot harvesting. States where suits have been filed include the swing states of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The effort is being backed by the National Redistricting Foundation, a Democratic group headed by the Obama administration’s Attorney General Eric Holder. The suits appear to be funded by Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC. A Wall Street Journal headline from April read,...

Goodfellow’s BedfellowsWho’s in Bed with the Washington PostBy Fedora Introduction I. A Radical Education: Boston University and Cambridge-Goddard II. Vietnam Roots: Indochina Resource Center A. Luce at International Voluntary Services B. Luce and Cornell’s Hanoi for Lunch Bunch C. Luce’s Tiger Cages and the Indochina Mobile Education Project D. Luce and Branfman: The COLIFAM Connection E. Luce, Branfman, Winter Soldier, and Project Air War F. The Indochina Resource Center: Branfman, Luce, and Goodfellow G. The IRC and the Indochina Peace Campaign: The Hayden-Fonda Link III. Post-Vietnam Transition: Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy and Coalition for a New Foreign and...

Joe Biden, already facing allegations of sexual assault at home and nepotism in China, has chosen a former U.S. senator with his own political baggage on China, ethics, and women to run the search for a vice presidential nominee. Christopher Dodd, who retired from the Senate a decade ago, was a central figure in the 1990s China fundraising scandal, having served as the General Chairman of the Democratic Party at a time it and Bill Clinton’s campaign accepted illegal foreign donations and turned the Lincoln bedroom into a donor perk. The retired Connecticut Democrat also has long boasted a friendship...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has come under fire from Democrats, and at least one Republican, for his coordination with the White House on the pending impeachment trial in the Senate — but the outrage overlooks the fact that Democrats took a similar approach with President Bill Clinton during his 1999 impeachment trial. McConnell, R-Ky., stirred a hornets’ nest when he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this month that he will be “coordinating” with the White House and that “there will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this.” […] But...

Look up the wiki article on Martha Dodd.

(Hartford-AP, July 14, 2003 6:11 AM) _ Three Republicans have stepped forward to challenge Connecticut's senior senator in 2004. Miriam Masullo of New Canaan, Paul Streitz of Darien and William Bentley of North Haven have all filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to challenge Democratic Senator Chris Dodd. The three have a tough road ahead of them. Dodd has served four terms in the Senate and has almost two million dollars already for his re-election campaign. But Dodd's challengers say they're not daunted by his political experience. Bentley, who manages a Taco Bell in Wallingford, says his lack of...

Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill ... The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was inserted in the bill, which passed on a partisan vote. All the Democrats voted for it. ... The power invested in the director of the CFPB was, and still is, unencumbered by any limiting authority of those elected to govern. He is a person who under Dodd-Frank answers to no-one. His agency receives its funding without any limitation or congressional oversight, as it has a “put” to the unlimited resources of the Federal Reserve rather than the congressionally-appropriated budget. The director of the bureau is essentially an unelected,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Carrie Fisher, speaking of sexual harassment charges, or rather the lack of them in this case. There's an amusing anecdote out there, Carrie Fisher's latest autobiography. She's the daughter, by the way, of the movie star Debbie Reynolds. I met Debbie Reynolds once at a House Clinic event. She was the entertainer. She's hilarious. I had forgotten. She is a hilarious comedienne, Debbie Reynolds. That's Carrie Fisher's mom, and Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the first Star Wars flick. That was before calling someone princess was sexist. Do you believe Cain had to apologize for calling...

''People will understand that we are serious about going after government corruption,'' he added. ``There is a very selfish reason for this: We end up paying for the bill when these people steal the money, because we have to provide aid, or accept the citizens as refugees or as migrants.'' The Bush administration says it is about to unveil a new weapon to help fight corruption in Latin America: a list of corrupt government officials from the region who will be denied entry visas to the United States. The anti-corruption drive is being led by Otto J. Reich, the...

A coming change in accounting standards could do irreversible damage to community banks, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., said in a letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board. An accounting-standards update due to be issued by the board would change the way all lenders set aside reserve funds in anticipation of possible losses. The board, wrote Tipton and Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., should take "utmost caution" in proceeding because it has the potential to "irreversibly damage community banks' and credit unions' ability to continue to adequately serve their customers/members and communities and sustain the economic recovery." ... Tipton, a member...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remains "the most out-of-control, unaccountable, and nontransparent agency in the federal government... And we can say that without reservation because this is one of the only agencies that literally operates outside of congressional oversight," added Wise, whose Virgina-based organization "works to protect consumers' right to access free-market goods and services." The CFPB, created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is funded largely by fees banks pay to the Federal Reserve. While its director, Richard Cordray, has bragged that his bureau has levied more than $141 million in fines used for CFPB education programs or reparation to...

financial reform increases staffing costs. Small banks are struggling to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed to regulate the financial industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, said Rep. Scott Tipton. The Republican from Cortez received some national attention this week for challenging Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to support his plan to ease the burden of Dodd-Frank on small banks. ... Mike Burns, president of Alpine Bank for the Southwest region, said in a phone interview that Dodd-Frank is creating head winds. “We really want to focus our time and energy in supporting the communities...

Republican presidential candidates are increasingly adopting anti-Wall Street rhetoric, as they assail Democrats’ tactics to rein in big banks and appeal to voters’ distrust of the financial sector. In recent weeks, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared he is "fed up" with Wall Street's antics, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) slammed Goldman Sachs and Ohio Gov. John Kasich derided the banking industry as rife with greed. The fiery language comes as the landmark 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law nears its fifth anniversary next month. The Democrat-backed statute, Congress’s response to the 2008 economic crisis, put into place hundreds of new regulations,...

Washington · Otto Reich, President Bush's chief adviser on Latin America, said on Thursday that the administration will step up efforts to pressure the Fidel Castro regime, aid dissidents and hasten the political transformation of the island. "I know that President Bush is interested in doing more to accelerate the process of change in Cuba, and it's safe to say that in the next few weeks and months you will see some additional steps," Reich said. "It's been very difficult for this president to implement this policy for Cuba and the Western Hemisphere because up to this week he was...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday morning slammed a provision in the pending spending bill that would repeal a piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and expressed doubt that enough Democrats could support the package if that rider remains. “I just spoke to Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats believe this is an odious provision that should not be included. Many of us feel the same way,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “[Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] can take it out in the bat of any eye, and I hope he will....

Long before George Bailey wrestled with Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life," the public decried the pay of top executives in large financial institutions. Overpaid bank executives are the villains in regulatory morality tales and feed distorted public perceptions about bankers' pay. It is true that the very top bank executives make more in a year than most of us make in a lifetime, but compensation of this magnitude is rare. Most banks in this country are small businesses and pay employees modest salaries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual salary of a bank employee...

Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are conducting a massive, NSA-esque data-mining project collecting account information on an estimated 991 million American credit card accounts. It was also learned at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that CFPB officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a second data-mining effort, this one focused on the 53 million residential mortgages taken out by Americans since 1998.

Say hello to Big Brother. . . Again. As if the information collected through the NSA, IRS, and FBI weren’t enough, the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (does that Orwellian named entity not give you the full body shivers?) has decided that government does not have a stranglehold on the spending habits of enough Americans. As a result, the Bureau, which was created as part of Dodd-Frank, is planning on monitoring up to 80 percent of all debit and credit card purchases – roughly 42 billion transactions. (Ironically, the agency has not released how much this data mining program...

The FSOC’s decision to expand the too-big-to-fail designation to nonbank firms will be seen as the most damaging action taken under Dodd-Frank. It was no surprise that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) decided last week to cite a number of nonbank firms as systemically significant, placing them in line for greater regulatory scrutiny by the Federal Reserve. What was a surprise is that — in the midst of a huge outcry in Congress about banks that are too big to fail (TBTF) — neither Congress nor the administration asked the FSOC to stop the designation process until the too-big-to-fail...