LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 63

A Wall Street-backed bill passed by the House Financial Services Committee last summer would substantially burden the signature oversight institution created by Dodd-Frank financial reform, according to a study released Tuesday. The bill would task the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with providing over a dozen legal opinions to banks every day, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO found that the legislation would increase CFPB costs by $81.5 million annually over the next ten years–a sizable chunk of the agency’s budget. According to an annual report published… Keep Reading

Climate change has recently been failing to galvanize activists the same way that open internet rules have, according to data on public comments released this week. After a deadline on input passed Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency said it received more than 1.6 million public comments on proposed rules to limit utilities’ carbon emissions. The Federal Communications Commission received 3.9 million letters on proposed Net Neutrality rules after a deadline on relevant public comments passed in November. The number of comments on the pollution regulations appear… Keep Reading

The Treasury Department warned Tuesday that corporate borrowing represents one of “several threats to financial stability” to have emerged during the post-2008 economic recovery. The third annual Congressional report published by the department’s Office of Financial Research found that significant corporate loan exposure, the possibility of a liquidity shortage during a downturn, and an increase in activity in “difficult to assess” sectors cast a pall over the US economy. “Assets under management have increased ten-fold over the last five years, driven by a search for… Keep Reading