Finance

If you thought the financial crisis marked a turning point in American history, and that Democrats and Republicans were committed to making TARP the bailout to end all bailouts, you'd be sadly mistaken. As Senator Chris Dodd's financial reform bill makes its way through the Senate, there is a broad conviction among experts that it will do little to prevent yet another financial crisis.

With healthcare reform passed, the next big legislative battle will be over financial regulation reform. Unlike the Affordable Care Act, which the nation followed from opening to closing credits, financial reform has been running in a largely empty theater. Many reporters and citizens find themselves walking into the show two-thirds of the way through, bewildered by its complexity. But the movie's not over yet, and the ending is undetermined. So it's important for progressives to understand the essential elements of financial reform.

 Although by official estimates the state of the economy is improving, millions of Americans are still without jobs. While current unemployment figures are under 10% and some gains have been seen in a few economic sectors, the picture is not exactly rosy quite yet. If the number of individuals underemployed or working part-time but desiring full-time employment was considered, then the unemployment numbers would rise considerably.

As the financial crisis fades into memory, no consensus has emerged on how things went so wrong. Some maintain that the Community Reinvestment Act and government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set in motion the chain of events that ended in disaster. Others blame two decades of unrestrained financial innovation for undermining the institutional and cultural safeguards of the free market. And then, of course, there are those who believe that all or some or none of these things are true.

One of the greatest needs of U.S. manufacturing is access to sustained, adequate credit. The U.S. Farm Credit System provides a model for a new U.S. manufacturing credit system. The federal government should create up to a dozen regional manufacturing credit banks, modeled on the farm loan banks. Like the five banks of the federal farm credit system, each regional manufacturing bank would be a cooperative owned by banks and other credit institutions in its geographic region.

The urgent need to boost American economic growth while reducing the U.S. trade deficit makes it imperative to rebuild America’s manufacturing sector. Capital and labor that were diverted during the bubble years into unproductive, inflated assets in the housing and stock markets need to be shifted into the production of tradable goods to be exported or substituted for imports. A successful policy to reinvigorate U.S.

It sounds like a dubious aspiration, but one of the more pressing priorities for America this decade is to preserve our cherished freedom to fail in this country. This freedom to fail may not have made it into President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous declaration of the four freedoms that define America — it would have been bad karma on the eve of World War II — but it has long been one of the pillars of this country's exceptionalism. Call it the fifth freedom.

This measure will incentivize banks to locate in underserved communities and develop more robust products for low-income consumers by creating banking development districts. This bill would create a Banking Development District Program within the Treasurer’s office, which would encourage the establishment of banking branches in specially designated geographic locations where there is a demonstrated need for banking services.

The next big battle in Washington—one that will heat up fast if the health care tussle is ever resolved—will be fought over reform of the financial sector. In recent weeks, President Barack Obama has gone on the offensive, calling for new restraints on Wall Street wheeling and dealing and vowing to veto weak legislation. In December, the House passed a robust package of reforms. The action has now shifted to the Senate Banking Committee, and chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has pledged to push a comprehensive package over the finish line before he retires at the end of the year.

The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed a period of sustained global deflation. In the 1896 US presidential election, William Jennings Bryan famously attacked the gold standard as the cause of deflation, declaring “You shall not press upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Today, euroland is being crucified upon its own cross of gold that is the institutional arrangements behind the euro. Those arrangements have distorted the monetary - fiscal balance, creating deflationary central bank dominance.