Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Lady Gaga may not be the only one singing a new tune in November
The 2010 Reuters Washington Summit included 4 days of on-the-record interviews with policymakers, congressmen and Obama Administration officials here in the DC bureau. The interviews covered a wide range of topics…from the impact of the mid-term elections to the importance of the Lady Gaga vote.
With less than six weeks to go before the mid-term elections the focus was on what a potential shift in power to a Republican-controlled Congress could mean for policy priorities in the coming year. We heard from Senators’ McCain, Dodd, Gregg and Bingaman. On the House side we spoke with the man responsible for getting Democrats elected…Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He called this election season a “tough and challenging environment,’ but predicted Democrats would retain control of the House.
From the Obama Administration, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs opened his comments by admitting that early on the administration did not have a “real understanding of the depth of what we were in.” News of Larry Summers’ departure as White House advisor came on the eve of our interview with a man who has worked with Summers, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Goolsbee said he expected that Mr. Summers’ replacement wouldn’t be part of “a dramatic change in direction.” On the economy, Goolsbee noted that he does not see a double dip on the horizon and that “pulling back on current spending programs could spook the markets.”
On the regulatory front, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair was adamant in her remarks about “ending too big to fail” and said that “the banking system is healing…and there is continuing improvement in low quality loans.” Meanwhile, Treasury’s Special Inspector General for TARP, Neil Barofsky, the man charged with policing the government’s exit from GM and AIG, said his group would begin a probe into the GM IPO after it launches to make sure that it was in the best interest of taxpayers.
With end of TARP, investigations into fraud take center stage
While the much maligned $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has officially ended, not everything has wrapped up — auditors are just starting to hit their stride investigating scores of cases of possible malfeasance.
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the program, nicknamed SIGTARP, said his office has more than 120 criminal investigations underway. They are looking into whether the money loaned to financial institutions and automakers was used properly or not, if there was fraud in applications for TARP financial backing and other wrongdoing.
Where disaster and compensation intersect you’ll find Kenneth Feinberg
You can call him mediator, or you can call him negotiator, but don’t call him pay czar. 
Kenneth Feinberg says he doesn’t like the shorthand title that’s used to describe his role as the administration’s supervisor of compensation practices at firms that received money under the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
from Diane Bartz:
Elizabeth Warren’s wish list: subpoena power and a gun
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard thinker named to head the bipartisan TARP oversight panel, has long beaten the drum of accountability and transparency for the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program aimed at pulling the U.S. financial system back from the brink.
But, she says, like everyone who ever went to law school, what she secretly wants is "a gun and badge" as she goes after wrong-doers.
