New York Times : Derivatives regulation has been on the nation’s financial reform agenda for months. Undoing the Clinton-era law that exempted swaps from oversight is seen as imperative, except perhaps by big banks that deal in the contracts. It’s worth noting that many members of the Clinton economic team, including Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner and Gary Gensler, now hold pivotal policy-making positions in the Obama administration

Two congressional committees in charge of drafting legislation to regulate derivatives have quietly killed a provision that would allow the Federal Reserve to police the complicated financial transactions. The kind of derivatives that many blame for the near-collapse of the American financial system have never been regulated.

NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported strong third-quarter earnings Wednesday as its thriving investment banking business more than offset rising loan losses that the bank warned would continue for the foreseeable future. JPMorgan, the first of the big banks to report earnings for the July-September period, reported a $3.59 billion profit but also said it roughly doubled the amount of money it set aside for failed home and credit card loans in the quarter

If nothing else, the Obama Administration has learned the virtues of Clintonian spin. The so-called ” financial reform victory ” claimed Friday over approved new rules for over-the-counter derivatives is, in reality, akin to using a band-aid to treat gangrene. Any kind of bill which (in the words of the Reuters report), “strives to balance a desire to curb speculative market excess with preserving the market’s useful role in helping corporations hedge against operational risks” ignores the fact that it is not the market playing a “useful role in helping corporations hedge against operational risks,” but the product of a big financial subsidy to Wall Street.

My job is to help people achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. Every once in a while I run across someone who doesn’t want to change. What do I do to convince them the change is good for them

This week we learned more important details about the economy. They add up to a simple story: the recovery is progressing. First we learned that despite the ending of cash for clunkers, retail sales ex-autos increased 0.5% .

Resist the temptation to dismiss Bloomberg LP’s acquisition of BusinessWeek as merely the latest move in the media consolidation. This deal is a game changer on a number of levels.