PayThink

The current argument for new MMF "remedies" seems implicitly to be based on the assumption that runs cannot be anticipated and on the notion that the run that followed Reserve's action sprung unexpectedly and without warning from the Lehman filing.

Does your bank open early, close late and welcome you seven days a week? Does it let one person tell you yes, but require at least two to say no?

Success of the CFPB/FHFA Mortgage database will depend on how regulators handle four areas: Collaboration, scope, privacy and the regulatory burden, writes columnist Clifford Rossi.

Complex rules can be bent to special interests, and invite gaming and unfairness. An example is the exclusion of credit cards that don't impose "finance charges" from a great many requirements.

If the House goes to the Republicans, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas will most likely be the next head of the Financial Services Commmittee. A Dodd-Frank revamp and GSE reform will be his twin causes, predict observers.

Success will depend on how regulators handle four areas: Collaboration, scope, privacy and the regulatory burden.

What happens when the government’s investors start demanding a normal rate of interest? House prices could plummet, mortgage defaults could soar and the added interest costs could cause the federal deficit to spiral out of control.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray is expected to stick out his recess appointment term through 2013 regardless of who wins the presidency. After that various different scenarios could play out.

In all the regulatory discussion of small banks vs. megabanks, what about midsized banks? Some of those banks that are over the $50 billlion asset threshold, but far from being a Wall Street behemoth, are hiring their own lobbyists.

The potential consequences include rising interest rates, dropping home values, a resurgence of foreclosures and a dramatic, perhaps generational loss of consumer confidence.