budget
Chewing on Dodd-Frank spaghetti
July 21, 2011: 3:35 PM ETToday is Dodd-Frank's birthday.
Not that you forgot, but now it's time to celebrate with a late lunch of regulatory reform spaghetti, courtesy of the banking team at Deloitte:
Just 206 items in the 2,000-page-plus legislation are awaiting next steps, the Deloitte chart shows. The thing where the Securities and Exchange Commission has been charged with implementing this massive piece of legislation in a hurry at a time when its budget is being cut makes all the sense in the world, of course.
"The crush of things they have to do at the SEC just adds to the cost of doing business," says an executive at an investment adviser bemused by the length of the registration process for new exchange-traded products. "But we have a lot of respect for the people down there because the pressure on them must just be immense."
Even so, it's clear that the regulatory mechanism, which didn't exactly shine during the bubble and the 2008 bust, gets more bent out of shape by the day. It's enough to dull your appetite.
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Pimco's Gross betting against U.S. debt
Bill Gross is putting his investors' money where his sizable mouth is.
Gross, who manages the world's biggest bond fund and has spent recent months jawboning about the dangers of U.S. debt, has placed a $7 billion bet against Treasury bonds, according to the latest statistics released by his Pimco Total Return fund.
Gross made a splash last month by selling all the big bond fund's Treasury holdings and calling the federal MORE
Colin Barr - Apr 10, 2011 7:51 PM ET -
Larry Summers on a shutdown: The risks this time are greater
The former economic adviser to President Obama talks about the risks of a shutdown and what he sees in Paul Ryan's budget plan.
By Tory Newmyer, writer
FORTUNE -- The first shutdown of the federal government in 15 years now looks more likely than not. Less clear is what that event would mean for the economy. For some perspective, Fortune talked to Larry Summers, who was Deputy Secretary of the Treasury during MORE
Apr 8, 2011 2:51 PM ET -
Gross calls U.S. budget a Greek tragedy
Bond manager Bill Gross says he is "confident" the United States will effectively default on its debt unless Congress takes an ax to retirement and healthcare spending.
Gross runs Pimco, the $1.2 trillion investment manager that has spent recent months selling Treasury bonds, citing their low yields and poor prospects. He explains in his monthly investment outlook posted Wednesday evening that U.S. government bonds "have little value" in a world of MORE
Colin Barr - Mar 31, 2011 5:40 AM ET -
Here comes austerity
Don't think for a second that the Portuguese are going to hog all the belt-tightening fun for themselves.
No, austerity is coming to the United States too, investment banker and Washington insider Roger Altman said Thursday.
Altman, who founded the Evercore (EVR) investment bank and was deputy Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, said on Bloomberg TV that the latest installment in Europe's debt crisis shouldn't distract anyone from the need to make tough choices MORE
Colin Barr - Mar 24, 2011 3:39 PM ET -
Tom Coburn: Government employees are a drag on the economy
The Republican senator talks about how he'd fix government waste, what to do about government employees, and how Americans know how stupid Congress is.
Last week, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn called members of Congress everything from "stupid" to "jackasses," following the release of a comprehensive study by the Government Accountability Office that found dozens of overlapping and duplicative programs from education to defense that cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. The 330-plus MORE
Nin-Hai Tseng, Writer - Mar 7, 2011 8:53 AM ET -
The budget for dummies
Forget about what's being cut and what's being funded. The key to understanding Obama's budget is to look at a few simple numbers that tell the whole story.
It's hardly surprising that America's taxpayers are thoroughly confused by President Obama's new budget, since pundits and politicians are calling it everything from a model of fiscal prudence to a shameless manifesto for Big Government.
So here's my version of the Budget for Dummies, MORE
Shawn Tully, senior editor-at-large - Feb 17, 2011 10:27 AM ETPosted in: Barack Obama, budget, Congressional Budget Office, debt, deficit, Economy, Paul Ryan, taxes -
Obama's $89 billion Fannie-Freddie payday
Ready to start cashing in on your generous support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
The Obama administration is. Its budget, released Monday, forecasts that the mortgage companies – which have consumed a net $131 billion in taxpayer funds since their 2008 takeover – will start generating cash for the government the year after next.
All told, the administration expects the companies to make $89 billion in net payments to the government MORE
Colin Barr - Feb 14, 2011 12:28 PM ET -
What cuts? Obama's budget only boosts spending
President Obama has two choices to avoid a major fiscal debt crisis for the U.S.: Fix it or ignore it. Unfortunately, he has so far chosen the latter.
Now it's official. The budget President Obama released today does virtually nothing to address the growth of entitlement spending that's by far the biggest factor driving our gargantuan deficits and debt. As for the administration's claims that it's making big cuts in areas MORE
Shawn Tully, senior editor-at-large - Feb 14, 2011 10:39 AM ETPosted in: budget, Congressional Budget Office, deficit, Economy, federal debt, obama, Tax cut, United States federal budget -
Bernanke blasts Congress on budget
Yes, the U.S. economy may finally be recovering. American willpower to confront real problems? Not so much.
To his credit, Ben Bernanke isn't here to make us feel better. The Federal Reserve chief devoted the last third of his prepared testimony before the Senate Budget Committee Friday to a familiar complaint: that Congress isn't taking seriously the chronic – yet potentially acute – problem of U.S. overspending.
Bernanke has made this point more MORE
Colin Barr - Jan 7, 2011 10:21 AM ET
