House Passes Far-Reaching Bill Tightening Financial Rules

F.D.I.C. Closes 3 Failed Banks
December 13, 2009, New York Times

Regulators on Friday shut down banks in Florida, Arizona and Kansas, bringing to 133 the number of United States banks that have failed to hold up this year against the struggling economy and a cascade of loan defaults. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over Republic Federal Bank in Miami, with $433 million in assets and $352.7 million in deposits, The Associated Press reported. The F.D.I.C. also took over Valley Capital Bank of Mesa, Ariz., with $40.3 million in assets and $41.3 million in deposits; and SolutionsBank in Overland Park, Kan., with $511.1 million in assets and $421.3 million in deposits.

House Passes Far-Reaching Bill Tightening Financial Rules
December 10, 2009, New York Times

The House on Friday approved a Democratic plan to significantly tighten federal regulation of Wall Street and the financial sector, advancing a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis still reverberating through the economy. After three days of floor debate, the House voted 223 to 202 to approve the measure, which did not get a single Republican vote. It creates a new agency to oversee consumer lending, establishes new rules for transactions that contributed to the meltdown, and seeks to reduce the threat that one or two huge companies on the verge of collapse could bring down the economy.

Time to Fold
December 10, 2009, The Economist

Growth may have returned at long last to the American economy, but the housing crisis which set the recession in motion rolls on, impervious to government fixes. Nine months since Barack Obama announced his plan to keep Americans in their homes, foreclosures are still pouring in at the rate of more than 300,000 a month. The Obama team had hoped that their program, Making Home Affordable, would save as many as 4m families from foreclosure. Unfortunately, the Treasury admitted in October that only 500,000 loans have so far been rescheduled, and a congressional panel has more recently pointed out that all but around 2,000 of those adjustments were only short-term ones. This has prompted more action from the administration, which announced a new mortgage-modification drive on November 30th. The changes to the program, however, appear to be little more than tinkering.