Free Republic

The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee blasted Republicans on Thursday for “vile attacks” on President Biden’s pick intended to make her a “Marxist boogeyman.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chairman of the Banking panel, ripped Republicans for efforts to “degrade” the confirmation process for Saule Omarova, who Biden nominated to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, was born and raised in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan before emigrating to the U.S. While she has been a U.S. citizen since 2005 and served in the George W. Bush...

Sunday, October 23, 2005 The $10 Billion REFCO Smoking Gun The listing for the assets and liabilities of REFCO was just made available, and guess what just happens to be hiding in the liabilities column? A $10 billion liability, at TODAY's mark to market valuation, called "Securities sold, not yet purchased." $10,590,379,000 - to be precise. Securities that have been sold. But they haven't been bought. Welcome to the wonderful world of naked short selling. Now, one might say, "hey, wait a minute, but Thompson of the DTCC said it's only a $6 billion per day problem." Only.

The doughty band of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reformers isn't beaten yet. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby plans to mark up a bill this week to protect taxpayers against the risky business of these "government-sponsored enterprises," and the question is whether he can coax enough skittish Republicans to pass it. The Alabama Senator's proposal is a quantum improvement over the non-reform that passed the House Financial Services Committee earlier this year. In particular, it would force Fan and Fred to reduce their portfolios of mortgage-backed securities, a source of great profit for the companies but also of significant...

It isn't often that a Securities and Exchange Commission chairman has the ability to unite against him -- his own White House, fellow GOP commissioners, leading financial lights in Congress and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. But Bill Donaldson is nothing if not determined. The SEC chief has devoted much of the past year to promoting a new regulation that would force hedge fund advisers to register with his agency, despite opposition from just about anyone who knows a hurdle rate from a drawdown. Most recently, his staff conducted a short "comment" period on the rule when most of the...