Opinions

In his new book, “Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy,” the historian Adam Tooze argues that the Federal Reserve's interventions preserved a flawed economic status quo. But it still isn't clear what the central bank could have done differently.

Saule Omarova is scheduled to appear before the Banking Committee as progressives cheer her potential appointment to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and critics describe her views as too radical. Her confirmation would rely on the support of every Democrat in the chamber.

In a letter to the agency’s new director, top Senate Democrats recommended policy steps intended to limit mistakes in consumers’ credit files that they said “can ruin lives.”

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard was interviewed for the top job at the U.S. central bank when she visited the White House last week, according to people familiar with the discussions. She and Fed Chair Jerome Powell are the only people who have publicly surfaced as being in the running for the post.

Directors can urge executives to move more quickly in gauging their institutions’ vulnerability to extreme weather events, said acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu. He offered a list of five questions every board member should ask senior leaders about their progress.

Senior Federal Reserve officials violated the central bank’s prohibition of stock trading that may appear improper, even if specific guidelines weren’t broken, Chair Jerome Powell said.

Senior congressional Democrats are concerned that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — an arm of the Treasury Department — is dragging its feet on a rulemaking to require corporations to report their beneficial owners.

A report by the agency found that consumers in majority Black neighborhoods were more than twice as likely as those in white neighborhoods to lodge complaints with the credit bureaus over information in their files. Meanwhile, disputes were less common among older borrowers.

President Biden said he’ll announce soon his choice of nominees for chair and other vacancies on the Federal Reserve, amid a scandal over stock trades by central bank officials.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell called Sherrod Brown, the head of the Senate panel that oversees the central bank, this week to discuss Powell’s sweeping proposal to limit securities trading by senior Fed officials, as well as Brown’s new legislation on the subject.