Financial speculation on commodities like oil and food is driving up consumer prices from the gas pump to the grocery store. To bring it under control, we need workable position limits. But the verdict is in – the CFTC’s proposal needs to be strengthened to do the job.
The bank-funded study on the supposed economic costs of the state AGs proposed settlement with mortgage servicers is a patchwork of unsupported assumptions all designed to lead to one conclusion – that the big servicers who funded the study ought to get a free ride.
View Our PDF Version Here April 12th, 2011 Elizabeth M. Murphy Secretary Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F St., NE Washington, DC 20549 Mr. David A. Stawick Secretary Commodity Futures Trading Commission Three Lafayette Centre 1155 21st Street, N.W. Washington DC 20581 RE: File # S7-05-11, Reporting by Investment Advisers to Private Funds
This NPR implements provisions of the Basel III agreement relevant to the use of internal risk modeling to set risk-based capital levels for financial institutions. As a general matter, AFR is highly skeptical of the use of internal bank Value at Risk (VAR) models for setting capital requirements.
Read the pdf here. April 13th, 2011 Dear Representative, The record of lawbreaking and abuse by the largest banks and servicers at every stage of the mortgage origination, securitization, servicing and foreclosure process is breathtaking, and the damage done – to homeowners, communities, investors, pension funds, and the economy as a whole — is devastating.
Since Congress largely deregulated consumer deposit (checking and savings) accounts beginning in the early 1980s, the PIRGs have tracked bank deposit account fee changes and documented the banks’ long-term strategy to raise fees, invent new fees and make it harder to avoid fees.