Articles About Wall Street

The next item on President Barack Obama’s ambitious agenda is likely to be overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage firms that so far have cost American taxpayers $145 billion to keep afloat.  The two firms, which own more than half of the nation’s $11 trillion in home mortgages, collapsed along with the […]

In a rare moment of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 96 – 0 to attach a modified version of an amendment proposed by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) to the financial regulatory bill to investigate transparency in emergency lending practices by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.  “This amendment begins the process of lifting the veil […]

The United States still faces “significant economic challenges”, with unemployment at “stubbornly” high levels and businesses that are reluctant to spend as government deficits rise.  This is the opinion of Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, who said “Taking account of the broad range of economic and financial conditions, there is no wonder that the electorate […]

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced revised legislation to regulate the nation’s financial system.  The plan would create a nine-member council, led by the Treasury secretary, to be on the alert for systemic risks, and direct the Federal Reserve to oversee the nation’s largest and most interconnected financial institutions. The […]

The nation’s pay czar is widening his review of how much money hundreds of banks paid their top executives during the 2008 financial crisis. Kenneth R. Feinberg, officially the Special Master for Executive Compensation, is asking for details on compensation at 419 banks that were bailed out by the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program […]

A combination of limited supply growth and anticipated stabilization of the jobs market could mean that office rents may return to positive growth sooner rather than later.  That’s the opinion of Victor Calanog, a researcher at Reis, Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of commercial real estate performance information and analysis. According to Calanog, […]

The Bernard Madoff affair is the scandal that keeps on giving.  In the latest twist, Madoff’s daughter-in-law, Stephanie, is seeking legal approval to change her surname to Morgan to protect herself and her two young children against death threats, embarrassment and humiliation. In legal filings made in Manhattan, Stephanie Madoff says that her father-in-law, who […]

An independent audit released by the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) has found the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to be effective, so much so that the Department of the Treasury has extended it to October 3, 2010.  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to use the remaining funds to assist families facing foreclosure […]

Greece, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, Latvia and Mexico are among the nations in danger of sovereign debt default, putting the global economic recovery from the recession at risk.  Sovereign debt is the debt of nations.  For example, U.S. Treasuries are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the government; similarly, other countries sell bonds to […]

President Barack Obama is angry with the big Wall Street banks that took TARP dollars and plans to do something about it.  “We want our money back and we’re going to get it,” Obama said in a White House speech when he proposed the Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.  “If these companies are in good enough […]