The movie promo for “The Social Network” screams “You Don’t Get to 500 Million Friends without Making a Few Enemies.” I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard that the film suggests that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook. That’s hardly a novel charge...
The U.S. Congress is in the final stretches of passing financial reform legislation which has been under intense discussion and debate since the implosion of the financial system in September 2008. Congress is now trying to reconcile the Senate bill spearheaded by Senator Dodd and...
This morning, June 25, at 5:39am, House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on financial reform legislation. The full details of the final proposed legislation will be revealed over the few days, prior to the Senate and House votes next week, here. It would be premature...
The President will sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act later this week. That will set the clock ticking on number of deadlines established by the financial regulation reform bill. Here are the two big ones to watch for. The regulation of...
There’s a critical debate this country must have but isn’t. Is borrowing money a bad thing that consumers and small businesses should be discouraged from doing in part by restraining lenders? Or is credit essential to the well-being of consumers and small businesses and the...
As part of its overhaul of financial services regulation the Obama Administration has proposed stronger protection of consumers of financial products and services.[1] The Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009 (CFPA Act), which the Administration submitted to the U.S. Congress on June 30, 2009,...
If Senators needed any further reason not to vote for the misguided Dodd-Frank bill two stories over the last week should have pushed them into the NO column. The first was the jobs report. Unemployment remains high at 9.5 percent and job growth is anemic....
The following is based on remarks made by David S. Evans at the New York Federal Reserve Board-New York University Conference on Regulating Consumer Financial Products, January 6, 2010, New York, NY. Let’s begin with a puzzle raised by the previous session on who should...
Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg and his partners made it look easy. The social networking platform ignited almost immediately after it was introduced at Harvard College. It didn’t take many friends seeking friends and guys seeking girls and vice versa to create enough “fissionable material” as...