Turf Battles

  • 05 May 2010 at 4:45 PM

Chris Cox Concedes Brooksley Born was Right About Derivatives

By Zachery Kouwe

Brooksley Born, former head of the CFTC and now a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, finally had her chance to stick it to Chris Cox.

Born, remember, was the only member of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets in 1998 to call for comprehensive regulation of OTC derivatives like credit default swaps.

Cox, then a member of Congress and the chairman of the Task Force on Capital Markets, vehemently opposed the regulation as did Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers and Robert Rubin. Well, we know what kind of havoc unregulated OTC derivatives have caused since then. Continue reading »

  • 16 Apr 2010 at 1:24 PM

Sheila Bair is One Tough Cookie

By Zachery Kouwe

Emails between the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC over the issue of who can do what with regards to Washington Mutual in 2008 are particularly fierce. Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee investigating the collapse of WaMu, called it a “turf battle.”

At the Senate hearing today, John Reich, former director of OTS, explained it this way: “Rome was burning” and “Blood pressure was running high.” Levin said: “I don’t see your blood pressure getting up over a bank that was engaged in dangerous practices.” Continue reading »