New York Story
Diana Taylor, longtime companion to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is opting to keep politics out of romance — at least for now.
Taylor, the former New York banking commissioner and now a board member of Citigroup, was reportedly approached earlier this year by two Republican political operatives to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, according to The New York Times.
Details were scant, but it appeared Taylor seriously considered the move, discussing it with friends and advisers and even traveling to Washington to meet with Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Although many said she would be a perfect candidate — a "grand-slam home run" and a "shoo-in" according to some quoted in the article — Taylor abandoned the idea.
The paper said Bloomberg wasn't keen on the idea and expressed reservations about her running, partly because of the potential awkwardness of a senator from New York and the mayor of the city living under the same roof.
Still, Taylor is hardly out of politics. The Times said she is advising Democrat Reshma Saujani's campaign against Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
And once Bloomberg's term ends in three years, friends speculate Taylor may look to a campaign of her own.
Reform Gets Stoned
Although many bankers oppose the regulatory reform bill, arguing it goes too far and will lead to a credit crunch, many on the left side of the political spectrum aren't celebrating it either.
Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi unloaded on the legislation in an article last week, saying it came close to addressing critical areas but dropped the ball in the final minutes of the game.
"In the historic battle over finance reform, when we had a once-in-a-generation chance to halt the worst abuses on Wall Street, many senators made the right choice," he writes. "In the end, however, the ones who matter most picked wrong — and a war that once looked winnable will continue to drag on for years, creating more havoc."
Taibbi, who has earned plaudits for his in-depth coverage of the financial crisis and notoriety for dubbing Goldman Sachs a "giant vampire squid" — a sobriquet that has stuck to the investment bank — says the Senate fell short in several areas. In addition to not allowing a vote on an amendment from Sens. Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin that would have strengthened the ban on proprietary trading, Taibbi writes, the Senate stripped a proposed $50 billion fund to help pay for the resolution of large banks and exempted too many companies from the consumer protection agency.
Ultimately, he said the bill will "rein in some forms of predatory lending and contains a historic decision to audit the Fed," he said. "But the larger, more important stuff — breaking up banks that grow Too Big to Fail, requiring financial giants to pay up front for their own bailouts, forcing the derivatives market into the light of day — probably won't happen in any meaningful way."
Brown to Fed Panel
Maeve Elise Brown, executive director of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, was selected last week to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council.
The council advises the Fed on its responsibilities related to the Consumer Credit Protection Act and other issues related to consumer financial services.
Her appointment was announced June 2.
Her term will expire in December 2012.
