This week in Washington will be the last before Congress goes in its Easter recess, and it won´t be a quiet one. Though the Senate may mercifully leave off its pursuit of legislation to tax AIG bonuses, there will still be bankruptcy to worry about, and certain members of the House will be focused on a mortgage bill from Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will continue to push his regulatory restructuring plan with appearances on ABC´s Sunday morning talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos and MSNBC´s Meet the Press with David Gregory. Also watch this week for guidelines from the Treasury and the Small Business Administration on how the government´s purchases of SBA loan-backed securities will be orchestrated.
Monday
Treasury staffers will brief legislators on Capitol Hill on details of the agency´s new plan to clean toxic assets and securities off of banks´ balance sheets.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Betsy Duke will address the University of North Carolina Banking Institute´s annual conference at 11:30am to discuss "a framework for analyzing bank lending." The conference is being held at the Westin Charlotte.
Tuesday
The Senate Banking Committee will convene at 10am to vote on a bill from Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., that would place new consumer protection-oriented restrictions on credit card lending.
The Banking Committee will hold at 2:30pm a reflective hearing with testimony from preeminent academics. The hearing is called "Lessons from the New Deal." Witnesses include Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, University of Texas professor James K. Galbraith, University of California, Berkeley economics professor J. Bradford DeLong, and Allan Winkler, a history professor from Miami (Ohio) University.
The American Bankers Association´s Government Relations Summit will begin Tuesday. Frank will address the group of bankers and lobbyists at 9am. At 9:35am, a representative from the Office of Thrift Supervision will speak (former Acting Director Scott Polakoff´s name is on the schedule, but he will presumably be replaced by someone who has not been
The Brookings Institute is hosting a presentation by Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern on fixing the problem of "too-big-to-fail" institutions. The program begins at 9am.
Wednesday
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair will address the ABA government relations conference at 9:30am.
The Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit will convene at 11am for a markup of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009.
Thursday
The meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 countries will begin. Obviously, President Obama will be there, and Geithner is going with him. As usual, despite the wide array of dramatic proposals put forth by commentators and policymakers for the G20 meeting, expectations for a significant outcome are low.
Friday
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will speak at 9am at Wooster College's forum on "Great Decisions in the Economic Crisis." He will discuss policies to stem the economic crisis.
At noon, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will address the Richmond Fed's 2009 Credit Markets Symposium in Charlotte. He'll discuss the Fed's balance sheet.
