A Democratic senator said on Monday that she’s “not sure” why Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner still has his job, calling his financial reform plans “appalling.” Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan , Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said that Geithner’s plans left banks the same loopholes and encouraged the same risks that led to last year’s economic meltdown.

The economic recovery is proceeding unevenly in its early stages, with areas hurt most by the housing slump still lagging behind other regions, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis of economic stress in more than 3,100 U.S. counties. Counties in the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Southwest are still struggling and have made the least improvement, the analysis of September data found.

That’s it. We’ve done it.

Last Monday, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) proposed the immediate freezing of interest rates on existing balances for the estimated 700 million credit cards in circulation. Since the passage of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which outlaws several common abusive lending practices — particularly the retroactive raising of interest rates and the levying of excessive fees and penalties — credit card companies have been jacking up interest rates in anticipation of February 22, 2010, when the law goes into full effect.

Presidents tend to overcompensate for the errors of their predecessors in the same party and in so doing sow seeds of their own mistakes. Bill Clinton wanted above all to avoid Jimmy Carter’s fate — losing re-election because the economy was heading south on Election Day. So Clinton made a deal with Alan Greenspan to slash the budget deficit and thereby jettison much of his ambitious campaign agenda (that was Greenspan’s precondition for lowering interest rates and causing an economic boom in time for the re-election) and then Clinton took direction from Dick Morris, who told him to move to the right

Advertising Age : London Fog was not a tired, 40-year-old brand at the time, as it was launched in 1954 when it changed from Londontown Clothes, a Baltimore men’s clothing manufacturer, to its current brand title and rainwear emphasis. Gilbert Advertising handled the brand through the ’60s and built a body of work that was acclaimed for its creative brilliance and brand dominance. Read the whole story: Advertising Age

Now that the House Financial Services Committee has passed the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the American Bankers Association has stepped up its efforts to weaken the legislation or defeat it entirely. The Chamber of Commerce has also embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign with an “inside-the-beltway push” and a “grassroots mobilization” nationwide. And Congressional Republicans have joined in, complaining that the “sweeping authority” exercised by the dreaded CFPA will “impede innovation and kill jobs.” It can’t surprise anyone that those who lend money to consumers do not care to be regulated by an agency focused solely on consumer protection.