The Independent

From Floyd Norris This year, a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing at which legislators sought no facts but instead threatened dire action if the chairman of the financial accounting board did not promptly make it easier for banks to ignore market values of the toxic securities they owned. The board caved in, which may be one reason why banks are reporting fewer losses these days. But the board’s retreat was not enough to satisfy the banks. The American Bankers Association is now pushing Congress to give a new systemic risk regulator — either the Federal Reserve or some panel of regulators — the power to override accounting standards. The view of the bankers is that the financial crisis did not stem from the fact that the banks made lots of bad loans and invested in dubious securities; it was caused by accounting rules that required disclosure when the losses began to mount. The superciliousness continues.

Paul B. Farrell Oct. 20, 2009, 8:08 a.m. EDT Death of 'Soul of Capitalism:' Bogle, Faber, Moore By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Jack Bogle published "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" four years ago. The battle's over. The sequel should be titled: "Capitalism Died a Lost Soul." Worse, we've lost "America's Soul." And worldwide the consequences will be catastrophic. That's why a man like Hong Kong's contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: "The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today." No, not just another meltdown, another bear market recession like the one recently triggered by Wall Street's "too-greedy-to-fail" banks. Faber is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it? The engine driving the great "American Economic Empire" f...

The approved measures provide a variety of home loan protections for consumers, including a ban on so-called negative-amortization loans. By Marc Lifsher October 12, 2009 | 6:47 p.m. Reporting from Sacramento - In a flurry of end-of-session bill signings, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved seven new laws that provide a range of consumer protections to home-mortgage holders and may allow some to hold on to their houses. Late Sunday night, the governor signed AB 260 by Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, tightens restrictions on mortgage brokers so they cannot steer borrowers to riskier, higher-interest loans when they qualify for less-expensive ones. The new law also bans so-called negative-amortization loans, which offer monthly payments that cover no principal and don't even cover all the monthly accrued interest. Such loans amounts can actually grow larger over time. The law also limits prepayment penalties to no more than 2% of th...

The following column appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2009: Don't Blame Voters for California's Budget Woes Big spending pols falsely claim citizen ballot initiatives have tied their hands. By SHIKHA DALMIA, ADRIAN MOORE AND ADAM B. SUMMERS With the Golden State still struggling to balance its books, politicians from both sides of the aisle have come up with a nifty way to avoid responsibility for the mess: Blame the voters. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, summed it up for his fellow pols recently by telling a reporter: "All of those propositions tell us how we must spend our money. . . . This is no way, of course, to run a state." State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has made similar comments in denouncing "ballot-box budgeting." Their indictment is false. Voters aren't tying lawmakers' hands too much, but too little. Here's the background: For decades, state officials have habitually proposed ...

By Jon Coupal Two years ago, when then Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a bill to prohibit the spanking of children, she was ridiculed for what many Californians considered to be frivolous legislation. In light of recent revelations of the "S & M" tinged escapades of a married, middle-aged lawmaker and one or more lobbyists, some capitol observers are wondering if Lieber should have targeted an older demographic. Although the just-resigned legislator, who described his conduct to a colleague unaware that he was also sitting before an open microphone, now says he made it up, it calls into question just what services and gifts are provided by lobbyists in an effort to influence legislation. After all, the lobbyist with whom the official claimed to have this special relationship had business before a committee on which he served as vice-chair. The Sacramento Bee recently completed an analysis of gifts, over and above campaign contributions, that are provided to Californ...