CORRESPONDENTS

Kevin Hall

Chairman Frank proposes ‘death panels’ for giant banks

The chairman of a key congressional panel Monday scaled back important parts of the Obama administration's plan to dismantle financial institutions that are deemed "too big to fail." | 10/26/09 18:10:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Are Fed, Treasury finally giving banks tough love?

In a frontal assault on the U.S. banking system, the Federal Reserve proposed Thursday to review the pay practices of America's largest banks, while the Treasury Department outlined why it slashed executive pay at financial institutions that are receiving substantial taxpayer bailouts. | 10/22/09 19:14:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Proposed federal watchdog for consumer finance advances

Consumer advocates cheered and the financial sector jeered Thursday as a controversial plan to create a federal agency to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other forms of consumer credit cleared a key House of Representatives committee on its way to an uncertain future. | 10/22/09 17:57:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

SEC frowns on trading systems that keep investors in the dark

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed on Wednesday new steps that could soon bring more oversight over private trading systems that go by the ominous sounding name of "dark pools." | 10/21/09 17:08:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Bill to tighten rules on ratings agencies has big loopholes

A key House of Representatives committee is set to vote soon on legislation that would overhaul financial regulation and produce greater transparency for investors, but as it's now written it fails to address many of the credit-rating agency missteps that helped fuel the global financial crisis. | 10/20/09 19:01:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

How Moody's sold its ratings - and sold out investors

As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody's Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts and executives who warned of trouble and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge the country into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. | 10/18/09 06:00:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Moody's responses to McClatchy's questions

MCCLATCHY: Having spoken to a large number of Moody's managers, mid-level and higher, who were present in 06-08 period, they all paint a picture in which the bottom is beginning to fall out of the housing market. | 10/18/09 06:00:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

House panel ready to pass sweeping reform of exotic finance

A key congressional panel is poised to approve Thursday a sweeping overhaul of laws governing the trading of complex and often exotic financial instruments that helped trigger a near meltdown of global finance. | 10/14/09 18:09:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Watchdog: Obama's mortgage relief efforts aren't good enough

The Obama administration's efforts to force the modifications of distressed mortgages, while laudable, is likely to fall far short because the foreclosure crisis has grown and threatens to dwarf government efforts to relieve it, a special congressional watchdog panel warned in a report released Friday. | 10/09/09 00:01:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Democrats in Congress push Obama for Iran sanctions

Congressional Democrats pushed the Obama administration on Tuesday to get behind tough economic sanctions against Iran, and they voiced deep skepticism that direct negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions will prove fruitful. | 10/06/09 18:10:00 By - Kevin G. Hall and Warren P. Strobel

For Brazil, Olympics mean the future finally has arrived

For the longest time, a joke about Brazil made the rounds in the halls of international financial organizations: Latin America's largest and most populous nation had a great future -- and always would. | 10/02/09 18:52:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Unemployment rate is highest in 26 years

The September unemployment numbers announced Friday were a reality check for anyone who was thinking that strong economic growth was just around the corner. | 10/02/09 10:38:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

How Chavez may have spoiled ousted Honduran leader's return

An accidental betrayal by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have forced the ousted leader of this Central American nation to seek refuge in the Brazilian embassy here on Sept. 21 as world leaders gathered in New York for a United Nations General Assembly meeting. | 09/30/09 20:32:00 By - Kevin G. Hall and Tyler Bridges

How Canada runs its own consumer finance protection agency

Doom and gloom warnings from U.S. banks that a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency would raise borrowing costs for consumers and restrict access to credit for small businesses haven't played out in Canada, which has had a similar agency since 2001. | 09/30/09 16:32:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Authors: U.S. economic crisis was long time in the making

Americans have always assumed that financial crises happen in basket-case countries, not here. So how then did the U.S. follow the lead of Argentina, Mexico and Thailand by plunging into this one? | 09/29/09 17:08:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

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