Public Policy Institute study details importance of financial services industry

“Many New York legislators and advocates seem intent on punishing the financial services industry with higher taxes and costly new regulations. But to do so puts thousands of jobs and New York’s most important industry at risk,” said Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of The Busin
Continue Reading →

Democrats open to talks on derivatives

Financial Times reporters Tom Braithwaite, Anna Fifield and Nicole Bullock write: “Two key Democratic senators offered a narrow path for compromise over the weekend after banks pleaded with regulators and clients to help overturn provisions of a financial regulation bill they
Continue Reading →

Punishing Street: a Pyrrhic Victory

In an op-ed in this week’s Crain’s New York Business Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State, Inc. warns that legislative proposal aimed at “punishing” Wall Street could cost jobs across New York state. He writes: “Bashi
Continue Reading →

Ignoring the Elephant in the Bailout

In a New York Times column Gretchen Morganson details the dangers posed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. She writes:  “If you blinked, you might have missed the ugly first-quarter report last week from Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giant that, along with its sister Fannie Mae
Continue Reading →

Derivatives-spinoff proposal opposed as part of overhaul bill

Brady Dennis of the Washington Post writes – “A dramatic proposal that could force banks to spin off their derivatives businesses, potentially costing them billions of dollars in revenue, has run into opposition on multiple fronts as the Senate prepares to take up legislat
Continue Reading →

Republicans end filibuster on financial regulatory reform bill

Michael Mcauliff and Kenneth Bazinet report in the Daily News – “Senate Republicans blinked Wednesday, ending their risky blockade of a bill to rein in Wall Street. “I’m very pleased by that,” President Obama said in Illinois, where he learned that Republ
Continue Reading →

Off Wall St., Worries about financial bill

New York Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and Ron Nixon write about how companies not in the financial services industry could be hurt by pending federal financial reform. “Mars, the maker of M&M’s and Snickers, wants to make sure it can continue dabbling in the derivatives
Continue Reading →

Cracked foundation: reforming housing finance

Roger Lowenstein’s column in this weekend’s NYT Magazine paints a well formed analysis of the mortgage crisis. “Timothy Geithner, a man whose taste for Kierkegaard is usually kept under wraps, recently held forth to the House Financial Services Committee on the “ce
Continue Reading →

Max Baucus: A bank tax is coming

DAvid Rodgers writes on Politico.com – “It was a short hallway conversation but spoke volumes about the dilemma facing Democrats, hungry for new revenues after emptying the cupboard on health care reform. “I don’t think there’s much doubt that there will be a bank ta
Continue Reading →

Bill on finance wins approval of senate panel

The New York Times reports today – ” Senate Republicans and Democrats predicted on Wednesday that Congress would soon pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system, indicating a potentially swift resolution of the latest partisan firefight on C
Continue Reading →