LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 36

The president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and a former Treasury Department official who helped craft the 2008 Wall Street bailout warned that Dodd-Frank financial reforms won’t stop the US government from rescuing “Too Big to Fail” banks. Neel Kashkari said Tuesday in Washington that the landmark legislation has helped “strengthen our financial system” with a variety of new regulations, but that they won’t prevent federal officials from extending publicly-funded emergency lifelines to crucial industry actors. “[N]o rational policymaker would risk restructuring large firms and… Keep Reading

Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Federal Reserve to implement Dodd-Frank rules that were supposed to have already eroded the “too big to fail” status of the nation’s largest financial institutions. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday for updates on the Fed’s final assessment of resolution plans that the firms were ordered to draft by the landmark 2010 law. Yellen told Brown that the ruling would come “in the not too distant future,” but declined to specify when. Warren reminded the Fed… Keep Reading

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the central bank is unlikely to consider backing off planned interest rate increases, despite recognizing the recent uptick in financial turmoil both at home and abroad. She made the remarks on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee in response to questions asked by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). “We have not yet seen a sharp drop-off in growth, either globally or in the United States. But we certainly recognize that global market developments bear close watching,” Yellen… Keep Reading

Hillary Clinton was crushed in New Hampshire’s Democratic Primary Tuesday night, losing by more than 20 points to a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, in an outcome that months ago seemed practically impossible. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) collected roughly 60 percent of the vote with nearly all precincts in the Granite State reporting at the time of publication on Wednesday morning. The former Secretary of State gained less than 39 percent of the vote. In June 2015, Clinton was ahead of Sanders by 40 points in public polling, as FiveThirtyEight… Keep Reading

The Internal Revenue Service decided to grant “social welfare” tax-exempt status to Crossroads GPS, an influential conservative political action group co-founded by Karl Rove in 2010, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The confirmation of the 501(c)(4) status by the IRS came last November after five years of deliberation. It was first reported on Tuesday by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRS). The determination means that Crossroads will be able to continue raising unlimited sums of money from individuals and corporations… Keep Reading

Maybe it’s the freedom that comes with the final year in office or maybe it’s the leftward pressure coming from a socialist on the campaign trail, but President Obama just unveiled his most progressive annual budget proposal to date. The White House dropped the $4.1 trillion framework Tuesday, which included hefty new investments in green energy, universal preschool, and policing Wall Street. In perhaps a nod to the populist anger toward bankers–articulated to resounding success on the campaign trail by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)–the budget… Keep Reading

The Department of Education announced Monday that it is creating a new organization to “respond more quickly and efficiently to allegations of illegal actions” by American colleges. Department officials said that President Obama has included $13.6 million for the new office in his fiscal year 2017 budget proposal. Called the Student Aid Enforcement Union, it is slated to be led by one of the Federal Trade Commission’s top lawyers, Jeffrey Kaye; the current lead attorney for the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “When Americans invest… Keep Reading

The biggest intercity bus operator in the United States agreed to settle claims that it routinely violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Greyhound Lines Inc. agreed to pay at least $375,000 in fines and said it “will implement a series of systemic reforms” to become ADA compliant, according to the Justice Department. “The alleged violations include failing to maintain accessibility features on its bus fleet such as lifts and securement devices, failing to provide passengers with disabilities assistance boarding and exiting buses at rest stops,”… Keep Reading

Once down by more than 50 points in the state, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came up a hair shy of shocking the world on Monday night in what’s being described as the closest Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus in history. With 99 percent of precincts reporting early Tuesday morning, the Iowa Democratic Party declared former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the winner. She secured 49.9 percent of the state delegate vote, compared to Sanders’ 49.6 percent. Not counting the state’s super delegates that had already pledged… Keep Reading