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Daily Archives: September 2, 2010

Fed Chairman Testifies on Causes of the Recent Financial and Economic Crisis

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Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Causes of the Recent Financial and Economic Crisis Before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, hearing, Too Big to Fail: Expectations and Impact of Extraordinary Government Intervention and the role of Systemic Risk in the Financial Crisis, Washington, D.C., September 2, 2010

  • “If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved. Simple declarations that the government will not assist firms in the future, or restrictions that make providing assistance more difficult, will not be credible on their own. Few governments will accept devastating economic costs if a rescue can be conducted at a lesser cost; even if one Administration refrained from rescuing a large, complex firm, market participants would believe that others might not refrain in the future. Thus, a promise not to intervene in and of itself will not solve the problem.”
  • Via New Yorker, commentary on this testimony by John Cassidy, author of How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
  • Related postings on financial system

    • SEC Adopts Temporary Rule Requiring Municipal Advisors to Register With Agency

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    News release:” The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has adopted a temporary rule requiring municipal advisors to register with the SEC by October 1, a deadline established by the newly-enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Municipal advisors provide advice to state and local governments and other borrowers involved in… Continue Reading

    Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Preliminary Staff Report Too-Big-to-Fail Financial Institutions

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    Preliminary Staff Report, Governmental Rescues of ‘Too-Big-To-Fail’ Financial Institutions, August 31, 2010 “The purpose of this preliminary staff report is to describe governmental rescues of financial institutions during the decades leading up to the financial crisis and during the crisis itself. Section I provides an executive summary of the report. Section II describes how federal… Continue Reading

    EPIC Challenge to Airport Body Scanner Program Moves Forward in Federal Court

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    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: “The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has set a briefing schedule for EPIC v. DHS, No. 10-1157, EPIC’s challenge to the airport body scanner program. EPIC has alleged that that the Department… Continue Reading

    Asylum Denial Rate Reaches All Time Low: FY 2010 Results, a Twenty-Five Year Perspective

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    “Very timely Justice Department data show that Immigration Judges are declining substantially fewer requests for asylum. Denial rates have reached the lowest level in the last quarter of a century according to a new analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Twenty five years ago, in FY 1986, almost nine out of ten (89%)… Continue Reading

    Birthright Citizenship in the United States A Global Comparison

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    Birthright Citizenship in the United States, A Global Comparison By Jon Feere, Legal Policy Analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies “Every year, 300,000 to 400,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the United States. Despite the foreign citizenship and illegal status of the parent, the executive branch of the U.S. government automatically recognizes… Continue Reading

    FEMA, the National Weather Service and other agencies are providing updates, advice and other disaster-management information on their websites

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    InformationWeek: “Agencies that deal with disaster-management are preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Earl, as the U.S. braces for another storm season. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has updated the homepage of its website with a Hurricane Earl Response tab, which includes a link to the National Weather Service’s hurricane watches and warnings map. FEMA… Continue Reading