Marketplace Scratch Pad

Morning Reading

Scott Jagow Dec 9, 2009

Good morning. To start the day, are big banks too big to punish as well? Plus, more on the financial regulation bill and seven companies that won’t make it to 2020:

More easy money for Wall Street (The Nation) On the financial regulation bill moving through Congress:

This last-minute amendment, if included on final passage, solves a huge problem for the Obama administration–how to pay for the next bailout if another financial calamity unfolds. In the House banking committee, the administration’s legislation originally sought unlimited authority for the Treasury and the president. But committee members choked on the implications after Representative Brad Sherman of California denounced it as “TARP on steroids…”

Solution? Let the Fed do it behind closed doors.

More on the financial regulation (NPR):

A financial overhaul bill that lands on the House floor Wednesday would regulate everything from complex derivatives to home mortgages. Consumer groups generally support the bill, but one thing they’re anxious to change is an exemption won by auto dealers from being regulated by a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Big banks are Too Big To Punish also? (McClatchy):

Among the more than a dozen firms that have gotten these SEC get-out-of-jail cards since January 2007 are some of Wall Street’s biggest, including Bank of America, Citigroup and American International Group.

Britain to tax every banker bonus by 50% (24/7 Wall Street)

Seven companies that won’t make it to 2020 (MSN Money)

More Americans believe in angels than man-made global warming (Outside the Beltway)

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