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Regulation: The Dodd-Frank Act's fifth anniversary this month has received surprisingly little notice. Too bad. It's a pernicious law, one that a devastating new report suggests is largely to blame for our lackluster economy. How bad is Dodd-Frank? One of its main goals, cited by both the White House and the then-Democrat-run Senate, was to get rid of the "too big to fail" doctrine that made some banks too important to allow to go bust. It sounded good at the time. But in fact, it's had the exact opposite effect, leading to a decline in small banks and rising market...

financial reform increases staffing costs. Small banks are struggling to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed to regulate the financial industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, said Rep. Scott Tipton. The Republican from Cortez received some national attention this week for challenging Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to support his plan to ease the burden of Dodd-Frank on small banks. ... Mike Burns, president of Alpine Bank for the Southwest region, said in a phone interview that Dodd-Frank is creating head winds. “We really want to focus our time and energy in supporting the communities...

President of Greek Banks Association Louka Katseli appealed at the citiznes to return their money to the banks. “Banks are absolutely trustworthy,” Katseli told Mega TV “as guaranteed by the ECB and the Bank Association, but they would have been even more powerful if 40 billion euros had not been withdrawn in the last months. Katseli, a former PASOK Minister, appealed to citizens to return their deposits to the banks “now that the banks are open” after a three-week holiday and capital controls. “Let’s all help our economy,” Katseli urged Greeks and added “If you take your money out of...

Tuesday will mark five years since President Obama’s signing of the Dodd-Frank law, the most sweeping rewrite of the country’s financial laws since the New Deal. Mr. Obama told the country that the legislation would “lift our economy.” The statute itself declared that it would “end too big to fail” and “promote financial stability.” None of that has come to pass. Too-big-to-fail institutions have not disappeared. Big banks are bigger, small banks are fewer, and the financial system is less stable. Meanwhile, the economy remains in the doldrums. Dodd-Frank was based on the premise that the financial crisis was the...

Cash for cheese may sound like a parody of the cash for gold scheme, but in Italy it's a reality for many Parmigiano Reggiano producers seeking quick cash.

Capital controls have been in place in Greece since the start of the month to protect the banks from mass withdrawals by nervous Greeks. They have rightly been concerned about their savings, the collapse of the banking system and the loss of their savings in deposit confiscations or bail-ins.

Over the past few days Sera Wilson and I have discussed the dangers of what is happening in Greece and how it could also happen here. Of course, most of our readers already know the U.S. economy is teetering on so much debt that a crisis is, in many ways, inevitable. That said, there is a common belief that thanks to FDIC depositor insurance, all cash held in banks (Under certain amounts covered by FDIC) is safe.Not so fast. Not have the FDIC and big banks been working on a way that enables them to circumvent the safeguard, they already...

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are reintroducing legislation to revive the Glass-Steagall Act, which would force big banks to split their investment and commercial banking practices. Glass-Steagall was first passed in 1933 but repealed during the Clinton administration, leading many progressives to argue that it contributed to the 2008 financial collapse. Warren and McCain, along with their cosponsors, Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said in a statement that the legislation would make big banks that are "too big to fail" smaller and safer and minimize the likelihood of a government bailout....

Stay tuned for analysis on Greece, where European leaders have given the debt-stricken country a deadline of five days to achieve a reforms-for-aid deal. The Greek Finance Ministry has said that concrete reform proposals will be out by Thursday and it has applied for a 3-year loan from the European Stability Mechanism. We'll keep you updated.

Greeks cannot withdraw cash left in safe deposit boxes at Greek banks as long as capital restrictions remain in place, a deputy finance minister told Greek television on Sunday. ...

Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears the country is heading for financial collapse, bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures said on Friday. The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said.

Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said. A Greek bail-in could resemble the rescue plan agreed by Cyprus in 2013, when customers’ funds were seized to shore up the banks, with a haircut imposed on uninsured deposits over €100,000. Meanwhile, Yanis Varoufakis swears this is nothing but a "malicious rumor": FT report of a Gk Bank Bail In is a malicious rumour...

Banks and the stock exchange will remain closed today after Greek citizens queued all weekend to withdraw savings. Banks in Greece and the country's stock exchange will be shut all week in a sign of the deepening financial crisis. The drastic move comes after people rushed to withdraw their cash amid panic ahead of the referendum on bailout terms. Under the controls, there will be a daily €60 limit on withdrawals from cash machines, which will reopen on Tuesday. Speaking in a televised address, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged calm and insisted bank deposits were safe. He blamed European partners...

"The cashpoint at the Greek parliament is reported to have been topped up three times during an emergency session on Saturday night as ministers and MPs scrambled to get their own money out"

Greece banks to stay closed on Monday, Piraeus Bank chief says, after emergency meeting in Athens This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly

Why Is The EU Forcing European Nations To Adopt 'Bail-In' Legislation by the End of the Summer? Are they expecting something to happen? As you will read about below, the European Union says that any nation within the EU that does not enact "bail-in" legislation within the next two months will face legal action. The countries that are being threatened in this manner include Italy and France. If you fast forward two months from this moment, that puts us in early August. So clearly the European Union wants everything to be squared away by the end of the summer. Is...

HOUSTON (AP) - Larry Gonzales was emerging from his Garda Cash Logistics armored truck to refill an ATM at a Houston-area Chase Bank in October 2013 when a man behind him demanded money. "People joke around with us," said Gonzales. "I didn't think this dude was actually serious. Next thing, I get shot in the back. Then I knew this was for real." The 28-year-old was shot six times and, despite multiple surgeries, still has a "lucky" bullet lodged in his chest. Gonzales' case is not unique. Federal statistics indicate Texas' largest city has become a hub for bank and...

Welcome to the Recovery! Food banks across the US state of New York are running out of food (37% of food pantries say they have had to turn away needy people because they ran out of food), amid falling funds and rising demand from people that have trouble affording food. About 2.6 million people have trouble affording food across New York with about 1.4 million New York City residents relying on food pantries to feed themselves, according to the Food Bank For New York City. But as PressTV reports, contrary to the belief that people visiting food pantries are homeless...

The Export-Import Bank charter will expire in a few days, on June 30, unless Congress acts to reauthorize it. The Export-Import Bank was created more than 80 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help foreign customers buy goods from the United States. Some companies benefit from the Export-Import Bank and they are the first ones to defend its reauthorization. But let’s be clear: Companies benefit from Export-Import Bank loans at the expense of taxpayers and other businesses. Taxpayers—not the companies themselves—assume the risk of a foreign loan, made through a private bank (like Goldman Sachs), to purchase a...

From the Middle East Media Research Institute comes a recent video of Egyptian presidential candidate Bassem Khafagi on Al-Nas TV promising to “complete the implementation of Islamic law in Egypt” (HT: Zip). From the MEMRI transcript: (VIDEO AT LINK) Bassem Khafaji: Let me tell you, in all honesty, that as a Muslim Egyptian, I am convinced of [the need to] complete the implementation of Islamic law in Egypt. I do not hide this truth in any way, because it is in keeping with the inclination of the Egyptian people. We Egyptians – both Muslims and non-Muslims – refer to the...