Word: congress
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...product is not ideal and the effort to reform a broken industry is far from over. Ultimately, millions of Americans will remain uninsured, a problem which deserves serious attention down the road. Also, while the new programs will bend the healthcare cost curve, it does not break it, and Congress must take further action to make insurance more affordable in the future...
...Congress is now approaching a crucial opportunity for financial reform. Such a reform must be tough and intelligent, as a weak reform would create a dangerously false illusion of security and stability. The House passed a major regulatory bill in December, and now Chris Dodd has brought his own Senate proposal to the floor, for debating over the next few weeks. Financial regulation must specifically address capital requirements for banks, the tools to liquidate failed financial institutions, consumer protections, derivative trading, and the immense trading operations of many major investment banks...
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Congress needs to take a hard look at how these banks are structured and the purpose they serve in today’s economy. As Roger Lowenstein wrote in a recent article, banks today make an overwhelming percentage of their profits from trading, in effect making them giant hedge funds-in-disguise that pose a stability risk to the market while also performing some banking operations. The Volcker rule, which would ban banks from engaging in proprietary trading, would change technical classifications that are easy to work around, as investment banks could shift risks...
...Congress has made useful progress on some of these steps but faces fierce fights against industry lobbyists in the months ahead. Their ability to keep tough protections as well as develop regulations and structures in concert with the international community will determine whether these regulations are meaningless or create a new foundation for the financial system—and the latter is absolutely necessary to prevent another international crisis...
...designed for vertical takeoff and landing to please the Marines and their smaller ships, while more conventional versions are slated to satisfy the demands of the Air Force and Navy. All of a sudden, however, the F-35 is in big trouble. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress that its recent cost and schedule snafus were "unacceptable." And while the Pentagon is not about to kill the program, the rush to push the plane down the assembly line and into the skies highlights the nation's continuing inability to pit its limited resources against real threats...