Poll: Americans Want More Regulation

GOP argument against reform is upside-down, writes Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - With financial reform on deck, Senate Republicans are busily figuring out how many "can get away with claiming that war is peace and regulating big banks is doing those big banks a favor," writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . Alabama's Richard Shelby is portraying efforts to rein in big banks as a bailout, and John Boehner recently urged bankers to stand up to Congress and "not let those little punk staffers take advantage of you." But in this case, Krugman says, it's those "punks" who are looking out for the taxpayer. More»

After toppling economy, Wall St. now opposes consumer protections?

(NEWSER) - “Banking is based on trust,” Elizabeth Warren argues in the Wall Street Journal , yet lately banks have “thrown away customer trust like so much worthless trash.” After ripping off the public for years with deceptive mortgages and credit card tricks, they’re now lobbying furiously against the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a watchdog that would root out gimmicks and simplify paperwork, “giving families a fighting chance to hang on to some of their money.” More»

Voters don't reward economic competence after crisis: Krugman

(NEWSER) - The Bush administration has taken much of the blame for the American recession, but a "huge housing bubble and a financial crisis" were always on the cards, as Paul Krugman writes for the New York Times. Writing from London, where voters gave Gordon Brown a pummeling in Thursday's elections, Krugman observes that Britain shows what might have happened if the 2000 presidential election had gone the other way. More»

(NEWSER) - During the Great Depression, legend has it a group of Wall Street bankers went to Hollywood to see if it was worth investing in, only to be immediately repulsed by the brazen displays of wealth they saw there. Now that it's the bankers being pilloried for their excesses, writes Neal Gabler in the Boston Globe, it could be argued that the whole economic mess we're in is the result of once-stodgy Wall Street becoming Hollywoodized. More»

Regulators attempt to save face after failing to prevent crisis

(NEWSER) - There’s a reason the government seems to have no control—darn the luck—over the banks it’s poured billions into: It’s trying to save face, writes Eliot Spitzer for Slate. Washington has struck a tacit bargain with Wall Street, the ex-governor says: Taxpayers bail out the financial institutions, changing nothing about them, and in return banks “perpetuate the myth that regulators didn’t have enough power to prevent the meltdown.” More»