LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 32

The federal government is limited in its ability to oversee the housing market due to a trend that has emerged since the financial crisis—one that disproportionately impacts the poor and troubled borrowers. Non-bank firms grew to account for nearly one-quarter of the mortgage servicing market in 2015, up from 6.8 percent of the sector in 2012, according to a report published Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The development has left the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) hamstrung… Keep Reading

Senate Democrats held up the nomination of financial regulators, taking exception to two Securities and Exchange Commission nominees’ opinions about corporate disclosure of political spending. Senate Banking Committee members Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday they wouldn’t support Lisa Fairfax and Hester Maria Peirce—the former is a Democrat, the latter is a Republican. The move caused committee chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to hold off on attempting to advance the SEC nominations, which were paired “en bloc” with… Keep Reading

A proposed wedding of two behemoths in the oil services industry is on the rocks after the Department of Justice filed suit to block it. The $25 billion merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes—the number two and three largest companies in the field—would violate “core antitrust principles,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch stated in a press call Wednesday morning, announcing the launching of litigation in a Delaware federal court. “The proposed merger would substantially reduce competition in 23 separate markets for oil field products and services,… Keep Reading

Import-export data released this week by the Census Bureau calls into question the long-term strength of the US economy. The United States’ monthly trade deficit increased by 2.6 percent in February to $47.1 billion, the agency reported on Tuesday. A three-month moving average of the gap—a mean calculated to give a more clear reading of trends—was also up in February by 2.6 percent, and up by 7.7 percent on an annual basis. The data shows economic activity in the US passing over job creators. It… Keep Reading

Wisconsin voters gave Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) exactly what he needed Tuesday night: a lifeline to stay in the race. The Sanders campaign had to not only win the Badger state primary, it had to win big. And with nearly all the vote counted, it did just that, beating the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 57 to 43 percent. The Democratic Socialist was fueled by the support of young voters, winning 82 percent of voters 19-29 years old, according to CNN exit polls. He also… Keep Reading

Proponents of cuts to Social Security have argued that longer lifespans in the US make the program unsustainable over the long-run. President Obama, for example, argued in 2010 that Social Security “has to be tweaked because the population is getting older.” In 2013, he proposed cuts to retirement benefits through a payment calculation called “chained CPI” (he dropped the push in 2014). But a study published on Monday shows that the good health isn’t trickling down. The amount of Social Security benefits actually received by… Keep Reading

The Supreme Court made more decisions unfavorable to corporate executives in the wake of Antonin Scalia’s death. Justices declined on Monday to hear appeals by Walmart and Wells Fargo in moves that upheld two nine-figure class action judgments that went against the multinational giants. Walmart had been ordered to pay $150 million to 187,000 Pennsylvania workers for wage theft that occurred between 1998-2006. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had sided with the employees in 2014, ruling that they were forced to work off-the-clock and denied breaks.… Keep Reading

As has been made abundantly clear by the ongoing Republican presidential primary, lying about policy is not against the law. But it could be illegal to spin a tale in ongoing national debates, if those fibs mislead people with capital to spend. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is now asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an investigation along those lines, after four corporate executives protested a draft Department of Labor (DOL) rule on conflicts of interest for investment advisers. Warren wrote SEC Chair Mary… Keep Reading

The US government’s labeling of a major insurance corporation as “too big to fail” was ruled invalid by a federal court in Washington. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said Wednesday that MetLife, the largest insurer in the US, should not be considered a “systemically important financial institution” (SIFI). The designation–given to the insurance giant in December 2014 by a cross-agency body called the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)–meant MetLife was subject to additional supervision and reserve requirements by federal regulators. It isn’t clear if the US government… Keep Reading