On Wed, 30 June, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will hold day long hearings on the topic of derivatives.
Session 1 will provide an overview of derivatives, and Michael Greenberger is scheduled to testify.
Session 2 will focus on AIG’s Derivatives, with Joesph Cassano scheduled to provide testimony.
Session 3 will focus on Goldman Sachs’ derivative products.

The 2010 Colorado Democratic Senate Primary signifies two different directions in Education in our Country – between a business person’s view of education vs an educator’s view of education.
Our choices include Michael Bennet and challenger Andrew Romanoff.
Michael Bennet is the incumbent appointed Senator who was also appointed to be Superintendent of Denver Public Schools. Bennet was appointed to Superintendent because of his financial experience in business as a corporate manager for billionaire Phillip Anschutz.
Andrew Romanoff is the former Speaker of the House. He also worked as an educator in the State of Colorado as well as teaching in rural schools in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Speaker Romanoff’s website mentions that he formed a coalition to pass the Building Excellent Schools Today or BEST Act, which provided the largest investment in Schools in Colorado history, while Michael Bennet states he gave Denver teachers the largest pay raise in Colorado history.
Let’s have a closer look at each candidate’s claims and philosophy on education.

The House-Senate compromise bill on overhauling regulations on banks and other financial institutions was passed today at 5:40 AM. Two years after the American economy began to collapse, lawmakers began their negotiations in front of C-Span cameras on Thursday morning, but ended them behind closed doors on Friday. So much for transparency.

It looks like the fate of financial reform will get decided on Friday. There have been so many ups and downs in this effort. We’ve lost so many battles over crucial parts of the bill. It was never that tough to begin with; there are issues with capitalization requirements; there isn’t enough control of leverage; the Franken amendment reforming rating agencies should have never been removed. And the list goes on and on (though apparently we have had some recent victories as well).

Two critical Wall Street reforms, once declared dead by U.S. megabanks, are suddenly close to Congressional approval. As the House and Senate iron out the differences between their financial overhauls, it now appears that lawmakers are finally willing to ban banks from gambling with taxpayer money by implementing a strong Volcker Rule, and to end taxpayer subsidies for risky derivatives operations.

There’s no question that Blanche Lincoln is a bad Senator, one who consistently puts the interests of big business over those of her own constituents in Arkansas. Because of that, Bill Halter’s primary challenge put her within an inch of the end of her political career. But now, after that challenge, it’s important to continue observing what effect it has on Lincoln’s behavior. In other words, in what ways will she learn her lesson?

Woo, a summary. Anyone read these things?

Barney Frank has lined up with the banks on one of the most important outstanding parts of the financial reform bills.

Financial Reform is like a piece of old underwear–so full of holes, the skidmarks stay on your pants.

As if we needed another reason to elect Bill Halter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Blanche Lincoln said there was room to negotiate on a proposal that would force banks to spin off their swaps businesses, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Lincoln, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she defended the policy, but was open to better ideas and suggestions.

“Better ideas and suggestions”? God FORBID this woman gets over 50% tomorrow.