“The Federal Reserve Board’s final rule [on debit card swipe fees] is an improvement from its initial proposal,” concluded William Cooper, the CEO of TCF Financial, a small bank (by today’s standard, anyway) in Minnesota. “The Fed’s rule is an irresponsible abdication of its legal duty,” …
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So, what do you think of the Federal Reserve’s regulation of bank “interchange” fees, mandated by the financial reform law? Let us guess: Not much. Indeed, we’ll bet that nine of ten news junkies barely have a clue about what’s happened – other than the … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: banks, credit cards, debit cards, Federal Reserve, interchange fees, retailers | Category: Financial Regulation Reform |
 Leave a commentIf you are keeping up with the euro mess, Anthony Daniels’ piece on the Irish bailout in the Wall Street Journal probably won’t tell you anything of substance you didn’t know. But Daniels has a magnificent eye for the absurdity of it all. Who else, for example, … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Anthony Daniels, euro, housing bubble, Irish bailout, Royal Bank of Scotland | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentYes, you’re still agonizing about the proper role of credit default swaps (so are we). But financial derivatives, we’d like to remind you, are everywhere – and most of them are both economically benign and very useful. Consider KLM Royal Dutch Airline’s new twist on a very old … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: airline fares, financial derivatives, KLM | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentThe New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin challenges the conventional wisdom that the ongoing survival of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the only folks out there buying mortgages, is costing the taxpayers money. In fact, Freddie and Fannie’s losses (which will total several hundred billion dollars) amount … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, mortgage lenders | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentEarlier in the month, the former IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan took a swipe at indirect housing subsidies, which gave Paul Krugman an excuse to pontificate on the relative innocence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in creating the housing bubble. (Republicans, it seems, are more … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Charles Lane, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, housing bubble, Paul Krugman, Raghuram Rajan | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
One commentWhen the banking industry talks, the U.S. Senate listens. And in the past the bankers have had little difficulty in brushing aside efforts by retailers to regulate fees on charge card transactions. But not this time around: If the House concurs, “interchange” fees on debit card transactions – at least … Just can’t quit second-guessing Henry Paulson, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Company? There’s an app for you! Well, more an old-fashioned, web-based time-waster: the Bailout Game. Play it wrong and the stock market tanks; play it right, and you’ll avoid a recession… Oh, and did we mention that … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Alan Greenspan, financial bailout | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentThanks to Ezra Klein of the Washington Post for the timely resurrection of this admirably clear, jargon-minimal primer on financial derivative regulation [Download Here], written last year by Congressional Research Service analyst Rena Miller. In particular, Miller outlines the costs (as … ProPublica, the non-profit investigative reporting group run by a gaggle of impeccably credentialed refugees from print journalism, has a fascinating, jargon-free piece [Download Here] on the Magnetar hedge fund. Seems that Magnetar pulled … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: collateralized debt obligations, disclosure, Magnetar, ProPublica | Category: Financial Regulation Reform, Quick Takes |
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Professor Dieter Helm (Oxford) is a very fine fly fisherman, and an even better economist. If you haven’t done so, take a look at his new book “The Carbon Crunch: How We Are Getting Climate Change Wrong — and How to Fix It” for a bit of unconventional wisdom. He argues that politicians and the general public have not shown any real interest in addressing climate change. Helm argues that places like Europe should focus on setting a price for carbon that would cover consumption (and not just production), and that fracking could be a good “bridge” technology for reducing consumption of coal. The book is readable and insightful for those interested in the inside track on climate policy. 
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