“FDIC” on The Daily Caller

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday backed a proposal to bar banks from trading for their own profit instead of their clients. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of troubled banks tracked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fell in the April-June quarter, the first quarterly drop in five years. But growth in bank earnings slowed, a sign that the financial industry is feeling the effects of a weak economy. (more)

1.) Joe Biden refuses to criticize totalitarian Egyptian president, admits liking The Onion — Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak has not truly “won” an election in the 30 years that he has been president of Egypt. Instead, he’s used secret police and state-controlled media to intimidate and incarcerate his critics and political opponents, including the runner-up in the first presidential election where someone other than Mubarak was allowed on the ballot. On January 25, Egyptians rose up against Mubarak, and the Egyptian president responded by shutting down the country’s Internet and sending armed thugs into the streets to do violence against his own people. By definition, Mubarak is a dictator. Unless, of course, your dictionary was penned by Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in which case geopolitical interests supersede honesty and/or human rights. “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things,” Biden told PBS’ Jim Lehrer last night. “I would not refer to him as a dictator.” In other Biden news, the vice president likes the Onion’s made-up coverage of him. “I think it’s hilarious, the stuff they do on me,” Biden told Yahoo! News Thursday. “I saw the one of me washing a Trans-Am automobile in the driveway shirtless with tattoos all over myself and out there,” he added. “By the way, I have a Corvette– a ’67 Corvette– not a Trans-Am.” (more)

Investor confidence down: The Wall Street Journal reports that confidence among institutional investors has suffered its largest one-month drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with uncertainty over of the U.K. election, the “flash crash” in the U.S. and high levels of market volatility combining to make investors more risk averse. The State Street Investor Confidence Index for May reports global investor confidence fell 11.2 points to 88.2, or about 10 percent. Declines in investing sentiment in North America were a key contributor, with institutional investor confidence falling among European investors, too. Investing patterns by institutional investors in Asia, by contrast, showed confidence was robust, rising about 7 percent. But these Asian investors were selective, favoring commodity-producing countries and avoiding Europe and the U.S. (more)

Senate conferees named: The Senate on Tuesday named 12 conferees to reconcile legislative differences between the upper and lower chambers’ financial reform bills. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, will serve as chairman of the conference negotiations, which Democrats aim to complete before the July 4 recess. House members are expected to be named next week. The seven Senate Democrats are Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Charles Schumer of New York, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Harkin of Iowa. The Republicans are Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. (more)

U.S and world stock markets are slumping badly as intensified systemic risks from the Greek and European debt-default contagion continue to spread. Disciplinarian markets of stocks, bonds, gold, and currencies are signaling the inadequacy of European Union rescue plans and the global fear that economic recovery will be blunted. (more)

Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican and the ranking Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, gave a final speech on the Senate floor Thursday in advance of the final vote to pass a financial regulation bill, which passed later in the evening. (more)

U.S. lenders posted $18 billion in profits during the first quarter, reflecting signs of recovery in the banking industry even as the number of “problem” banks increased, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. (more)

Senators ought to know they shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep. (more)

It seems to be in the nature of human beings to look to assign blame when something goes wrong in our lives. That blame game gets amplified when Washington get involved, often inciting a “gang-with-pitchforks” mentality to deflect from their own culpability. Political scapegoating is easy; it’s the fixes that are tough. (more)

Federal regulations cover everything from the size of holes in Swiss cheese to the label text on over-the-counter flatulence medication. There are so many rules, it takes 157,000 pages to list them all. And they cost us $1.187 trillion, according to “Ten Thousand Commandments,” a new study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. (more)

In his recent speech on Wall Street, President Obama tried to delegitimize any criticism of his proposed financial regulations and taxes. He said, “What’s not legitimate is to suggest that somehow the legislation being proposed is going to encourage future taxpayer bailouts, as some have claimed. That makes for a good sound bite, but it’s not factually accurate. It is not true. In fact…a vote for reform is a vote to put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts. That’s the truth. End of story.” (more)

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It is so sad it’s almost funny when a majority political party thinks if they name legislation something positive, the negative aspects will not be examined. There is no debate against the fact that our financial services system is damaged. With remaining scars from Goldman Sacs, Bernie Madoff and others, there is a need for reform. However, the democrats’ definition of such as seen through this recent bill begs to differ from what is really required for us to escape the continuing turmoil of recession. (more)

You are going to be tempted. You may already be as guilty as Bernie Madoff himself. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is urging Senate Democrats to drop a $50 billion bank liquidation fund from a financial regulation bill. The money has become a target of Republicans, who have branded the fund a Wall Street bailout. (more)

Jon Ward linked to this Ezra Klein interview with Sen. Bob Corker in his piece yesterday, but there’s one exchange in particular that I think is worth highlighting, because it perfectly sums up a core problem with regulation in general (bolded is Klein, regular is Corker): (more)

Baffled by financial regulation reform? Read Jon Ward’s piece from yesterday for a blow-by-blow of what’s happening in Congress (confusion, bedlam, etc.). For a chronological sense of how things have unfolded so far and a quick look at some of the more substantive arguments for why it is a bailout, you can’t beat it. Then, watch this crazy video of Chris Dodd acting crazy. (more)

A House staffer sends along this American Banker interview with FDIC chair Sheila Bair, in which she denies Sen. Mitch McConnell’s claim that the new financial regulatory bill would perpetuate bailouts: (more)

There are many valid reasons to be angry with bankers, and supporters of Senator Chris Dodd’s (D–CT) latest rewrite of his financial regulatory bill, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, have mentioned them all. Americans have heard all about greedy bankers, huge bonuses, shady accounting practices, and outright greed. But the reason for this rhetoric is nothing less than an attempt to seize control of the financial services industry and to micromanage it. (more)