Finance

Farmers and eaters lose, corporate money wins in budget deal

The amazingly terrible new spending agreement reached by the House and Senate this week illustrates the heavy price we all pay for a government increasingly influenced by big corporate and financial industry donors.

Wall Street manipulates Main Street, again

During the fight to pass and implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, a favorite Wall Street lobbyist tactic was to organize small and large non-financial business owners to talk with members of Congress about the “unintended consequences” for Main Street of regulatin

Reforming for international financial stability vs. the TISA counter-reformation

On June 19, Wikileaks posted the April 2014 draft text of the financial services annex of the proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). The Wikileaks posting shows governments, above all the U.S. and EU trade negotiators, in their traditional role of trying to open markets for the big banks and other financial firms.

Why should a bank be allowed to own and trade oil, metals or land?

The Board of the Federal Reserve asked this question, in essence, and 25 questions related to it in an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Getting the data to regulate global banks

This September, it will be five years since President Barack Obama and other Group of 20 leaders committed to regulating the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets jointly and in each of their jurisdictions.

"Trading" at the speed of light

Is it possible or necessary to regulate Automated Trading Systems (ATSs) on commodity futures markets that transact business electronically without direct human intervention at the speed of light (high-frequency Trading (HFT))?

The Financial Stability Board meets in Moscow: Said and left unsaid

This blog was originally published November 26, 2013 in an alternate version by the Post Globalization Initiative.

Dodd-Frank position limits on commodity contracts: Round 2

During the more than three years since Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act, financial regulators have struggled to draft, approve and implement the rules authorized by Dodd-Frank.

Secret trade agenda threatens shift toward sustainable food system

After being delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are quietly gearing up again. Tariff barriers between the U.S.