Dodd-Frank opponents return to the drawing board
By Daniel Indiviglio
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
JPMorgan has given financial reformers at least two billion reasons to insist on more aggressive oversight of the banking industry. In the wake of last week’s trading loss, presidential contender Mitt Romney and other Republicans will have to rethink their rhetoric around gutting the Dodd-Frank Act and, more specifically, its Volcker Rule provision. Voters may no longer believe that big banks can manage their own risks, which leaves making banks smaller the alternative to tighter regulation.
A post-Chavez Venezuela is no investment bonanza
By Raul Gallegos
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The health of Hugo Chavez has piqued the market’s interest. Long stretches of silence from the cancer-stricken Venezuelan president have brought a certain morbid optimism to investors, who have sent the country’s debt to highs not seen in years. But any new regime will still have to wrestle with the legacy of backwards Chavez policy. Unwinding years of economic mismanagement won’t be easy.
When shareholder democracy trumps the real thing
By Rob Cox
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. This column appears in the May 14 issue of Newsweek.
It’s worrying to think that shareholder democracy is needed to rectify shortcomings of the real thing. Yet this week two of the nation’s biggest corporations will give their investors precisely that opportunity. Motions on the ballots at the annual meetings of Bank of America and 3M will effectively act as referendums on the U.S. Supreme Court’s flawed decision in the Citizens United case to effectively hand companies the same freedoms of speech accorded to people. Happily, supporting proposals to restrict the use of corporate money in politics isn’t just good for democracy, it is good business.
Buffett Rule divides Berkshire Hathaway faithful
By Agnes T. Crane
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Warren Buffett has built a career on finding value. And insurance-focused Berkshire Hathaway excels at calculated risks. But the ideological divide over a politically charged tax plan with Buffett’s name on it that marred Saturday’s annual shareholder love-fest this year suggests a temporary lapse when it comes to those two virtues. The Buffett Rule may be an unexpected liability for Berkshire.
Agnes,
I don’t think this is very balanced reporting. I’m not happy with the level of complexity involving this matter and the over-simplification with which it is being discussed. Look at the answer from the Greg Hershberger – this is typical conservative rhetoric (of which I am conservative – but come on, he isn’t even thinking) and misses the point that 65% of the rich are paying 30% or more. So it isn’t a matter of whether the people producing should pay more tax, it is more about whether the person that invests his money in an actual company should pay more than the person that just invests his money in the stock. If the person buying the company pays himself more as the company makes more, he will get taxed on payroll taxes (33% at the highest rate). It is nothing but the lobbying activy of the traders, hedge fund managers, and the investment comunity that has created this gap, and Warren is suggesting that it be closed. He didn’t ask to reform the entire tax code and he didn’t suggest that this would solve our financial crisis. What it would do is get rid of some of the concern that the rich are getting richer by changing the rules – not because they are working harder, or smarter (cheating excluded). It doesn’t matter how much logic we use, some people have no interest in playing by the rules. You also didn’t mention that the second applause was louder than the first, and people seem to forget that Warren’s father was a republican congressman. RW
Obama’s job creation hopes look fragile
By Martin Hutchinson
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Barack Obama can at last say he has presided over increased employment in America’s private sector, if not in government, since he arrived in the White House in January 2009. But the slowing pace of job creation evident from Friday’s monthly report and declining labor force participation could make for a tough sell in November’s elections.
It appears that between the Eurozone’s problem and America’s problems, QE3 becomes increasingly likely. It is now primarily a matter of timing… preemptive or in response to a crisis?
I think it would be best to wait for a crisis to strike on at least on side of Atlantic, preferably on both sides. If QE3 is delivered preemptively, what can the financial wizards do if the QE fails to prevent a looming crisis… QE4?
Let News Corp keep BSkyB
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
News Corporation should be allowed to keep its 39 percent stake in UK pay-TV group BSkyB. British MPs may be right when they say founder Rupert Murdoch isn’t “fit” to run News Corp and turned a blind eye to wrongdoing in its UK operations. But a regulatory review of BSkyB’s fitness to broadcast isn’t the place to remedy these failings.
Saudis wouldn’t gain much from a union with Bahrain
By Una Galani
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Saudi Arabia’s call for Gulf nations to combine into a single entity appears to lay the ground for some kind of union with Bahrain. King Abdullah first highlighted the security issues facing the region when its leaders met in December – nine months after the kingdom sent tanks to tame a pro-democracy movement in Bahrain. Speculation is now swirling about how the relationship between the strongest and weakest members of the six-nation bloc could evolve, ahead of a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council this week.
This Action of Unifying Bahrain and Saudi Arabia makes Sense in the Dictatorial Sense. The People of these societies are not democratically represented. Their views do not count.
It is a very cynical act, because the truth of what the people of Bahrain want is far from this suggestion by the Unelected Absolute Dictator of Saudi Arabia.
The majority of people in Bahrain would prefer to be Unified with their Persian Brothers and Sisters in Iran, than with Arabs. Ask any Bahraini you know, go on facebook.
U.S. mortgage lessons lost in student debt policy
By Daniel Indiviglio
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The lessons of the U.S. mortgage crisis seem to be lost on policymakers tackling student debt. A decade ago, government subsidies and guarantees helped expand the “dream” of homeownership to many Americans who would have been better off renting. Today, it’s college education being made more accessible with cheap funding provided by Uncle Sam.
Fed’s rising growth, falling inflation are wishful
By Martin Hutchinson
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Ben Bernanke seems to be just hoping for the best. Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement talks about a pick-up in growth even as inflation declines from the current run-rate above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. These trends aren’t apparent from recent data, and the U.S. central bank needs contingency plans if things don’t pan out so conveniently.
“Fed’s rising growth, falling inflation are Wishful Thinking..” Ya Think?…you must be an Economist…
Murdochs’ UK political friendships backfire on all
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The Murdochs’ UK political friendships are backfiring on all concerned. Fresh revelations about the media moguls’ relationships have created new uncertainty over News Corp’s part ownership of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. They also have the potential to throw the UK’s coalition government into a full-blown crisis.
-
FEATURED VIDEO
-
Breakingviews: Bank boss bingoMay 17 - Breakingviews editors namecheck Wells Fargo's John Stumpf, who is venturing onto the anti-regulation soapbox, and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, who faces a potentially contentious annual meeting.Video
-
Reuters Breakingviews: Hollande gets serious on Europe - at lastMay 17 - French President Francois Hollande's plan for a centralised euro zone 'economic government' may be premature, but it has legs argues Breakingviews.Video
ABOUT BREAKINGVIEWS
BREAKINGVIEWS ON TWITTER
Books
Breakingviews has published a selection of books for purchase and download.
LATEST TITLES
Predictions 2013: Exploring the year ahead.
Edited By Robert Cole
Bridging the Divide: The economic and fiscal challenges facing the next U.S. president
Edited By Richard Beales
Hahahaha, Republicans advocating breaking up the banks, hahahahhaha….good one man….haha….. my stars….tears streaming…..
Finish the Volcker Rule, Reinstate Glass Steagall. There are many individual honest brokers in the finance community, but there are many sociopaths as well. This industry has a huge impact on the lives of every American, and therefore must be the tightest regulated.
Also chain Capital Gains and Estate Taxes to the Misery Index or Unemployment Rate or the median household wage or something along those lines. Get everyone pushing in the same direction for once.