May 20 Senate Passes Landmark Financial Reform Bill In a 59-39 vote Thursday evening, the Senate passed a sweeping overhaul of how the government regulates banks and Wall Street, marking the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s and giving President Barack Obama a major policy victory. Continue reading
May 20 Are Banks Borrowing from the Fed at Low Interest and Making Money Buying U.S. Treasuries? Question: I read recently that the “big banks” are borrowing from the Fed at 0.1 percent and buying U.S. Treasuries with the borrowed funds, thereby collecting around 3 percent. Can this possibly be true? Paul Solman: They have been doing… Continue reading
May 20 Watch Regulators, Senate Considers Safety Net, Post-Stock Market Plunge This month's stock market "flash crash" of 1,000 points was the subject of Senate hearings, as the federal regulators proposed new rules to prevent further instability. Jeffrey Brown talks to two financial experts for more on the markets. Continue watching
May 20 Watch U.S. Stocks Tumble Over Weakening Euro, Jobless Claims Stocks fell sharply in the U.S., amid concerns about the weakening Euro and the biggest rise in jobless claims in three months. Jeffrey Brown reports on the market volatility, two weeks after the unexplained "flash crash."… Continue watching
May 19 Q&A: Market-Wide 'Circuit Breaker' Rules Proposed to Prevent Crashes After the dramatic "flash crash" of May 6, in which the Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 1,000 points in the space of a few minutes, regulators have been scrambling to pinpoint the crash's cause and find a… Continue reading
May 18 Democrats Hope for Financial Reform Passage This Week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed a procedural motion called cloture Monday evening to end debate on the financial reform bill that has been working its way through the Senate, setting up a vote on the legislation as… Continue reading
May 18 How Soon Will the Greek Scenario Occur in the U.S.? Question: How far in the future will the Greek tragedy scenario arrive at U.S. shores?? Paul Solman: A week? A decade? Never? The world of finance is too complex to predict, but here, to bolster collective confidence, are a few… Continue reading
May 17 GM Posts First Profit in Three Years General Motors announced Monday that, thanks to an uptick in sales plus lower debt and expenses after bankruptcy, it made $865 million in profit in the first quarter of this year -- its first profit posting since the… Continue reading
May 17 What's the Motivation of Strategic Defaulters? Question: Your pieces are my favorites, and I never miss one. You recently did one on real estate in Florida that raised a question At one point, you say, “Welsh says he stopped making payments six months ago, and… Continue reading