Now, it is not like the financial oligarchy's lobbyists have not done their job so far but they are gearing up for the biggest battle.
Wall Street’s largest trade group has started a campaign to counter the “populist” backlash against bankers, enlisting two former aides to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to spearhead the effort.
Notice who they are enlisting for help - two former aides to Paulson. The battle is for "the hearts of minds" of Congress because Congress holds the key to real regulatory reform (not that bambi crap that Obama Administration proposed).
Looks like history could be repeating itself. Now we've known for some time that the Chinese were getting weary about buying and holding US-Dollar demominated government securities. They've been pairing back from the longer dated maturity paper to shorter ones.
Slowly but surely, they want to move away from American debt. All that money we've been shoveling their way, a byproduct to our trade imbalance, has gone into things showing their diversification plan, from farm lands in Africa to purchasing major steaks in mining firms to buying precious metals and oil. Now it seems, according to one Li Liangzhong, want to extend into further real estate purchases in the US.
Federal Reserve staff wanted to extract a pound of flesh from Bank of America for the Merrill Lynch acquisition.
So, think all Congressional hearings are sleepy, boring things? Get ready for the House Oversight Committee Hearing tomorrow!
In preparation for tomorrow's testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke on the shot gun marriage between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch , we have this released memo:
Lawmakers claim to have uncovered evidence that the Federal Reserve tried to hide from other financial regulators its involvement in Bank of America's (BoA) takeover of Merrill Lynch.
A new survey by Career Builder shows people are almost to the point of sifting through the garbage in order to survive. I'm being sarcastic, but this is really bad.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. laid-off workers are relying mostly on unemployment benefits or financial aid, and almost as many are cutting back spending to get by, according to research released on Wednesday.
Asked to list their primary means of making ends meet, a sixth said they are using savings and a fifth said they are relying on a spouse or partner to support the household, according to a survey of unemployed workers by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.
The most common answer was unemployment benefits, at 23 percent, and cutting back spending to just necessities, at 20 percent, it said.
A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.
Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to bumper bonuses if, as predicted, it completed its most profitable year ever. Figures next month detailing the firm's second-quarter earnings are expected to show a further jump in profits. Warren Buffett, who bought $5bn of the company's shares in January, has already made a $1bn gain on his investment.
Shocks of all shocks, the USTR is filing a complaint, along with the EU, against China for trying to hang onto the raw materials which make steel in order to boost their own production.
We are going to the WTO today to enforce our rights, so we can provide American manufacturers with a fair competitive environment and put more American workers back on the job," Ambassador Kirk said. "China is a leading global producer and exporter of the raw materials in question, and access to these materials is critical for U.S. industrial manufacturers. The United States is very concerned that China appears to be restricting the exports of these materials for the benefit of their domestic industries, despite strong WTO rules designed to discipline export restraints.
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