Financial Crisis Monitor

In a pay-to-play game ratings agencies were trusted by Americans until problems becmae obvious in 2007. An SEC investigation of ratings agencies could turn up some interesting facts. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose almost 4 percent Monday, share prices for Moody’s Corp. tumbled 7.19 percent as investors digested confirmation of a Securities [...]

A Democratic official familiar with Senate banking negotiations says a provision that would force banks to spin off their derivatives operations will be incorporated into sweeping regulatory legislation despite Obama administration misgivings.
The provision would cost the nation’s largest banks billions of dollars in business. In an agreement struck Sunday, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd agreed [...]

Here’s the written testimony of Eric Kolchinsky before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations last week who, during the majority of 2007, was the Managing Director in charge of the business line which rated sub-prime backed CDOs at Moody’s Investors Service.
He was suspended by Moody’s after warning the compliance group regarding what he believed [...]

One of our most popular articles discusses repeal of Glass Steagall. Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. He also explains why our article was so popular:
If any three people are most responsible for the failure of financial regulation, [...]

Senate aides inched closer Friday to combining separate bills that would establish oversight of the vast market for derivatives, an effort central to the ongoing push to revamp the nation’s financial regulations.
The Senate banking and agricultural committees, which share jurisdiction over parts of the derivatives market, recently passed different versions of legislation with a [...]