Z-Gate and the Sanctity of the Grand Jury

May 20

RealClear  Politics

 By Geoff Shepard

Jeff Himmelman’s revelation in his April 29th New York Magazine article (http://nymag.com/news/features/ben-bradlee-2012-5/) — that Carl Bernstein really had interviewed a Watergate grand juror — is breath-taking in its implications. It’s not just that Woodward and Bernstein have lied about this for 40 years, it’s that interference with a grand jury threatens the integrity of our judicial system.

Himmelman was researching Ben Bradlee’s papers for his authorized biography of the flamboyant Washington Post editor (“Yours in Truth, a Personal Portrait of Ben Bradlee”), when he found seven pages of interview notes with what was clearly a Watergate grand juror. This is the source that Woodward and Bernstein had falsely described as “Z”, supposedly a secretary at Nixon’s re-election committee, in “All the President’s Men.”

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How and why JPMorgan’s surprise $2 billion loss might change overhaul of financial regulations

May 15

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase has renewed calls for stricter oversight of Wall Street banks. Two years after Congress passed an overhaul of financial rules, many of those changes have yet to be finalized.

JPMorgan’s misstep gives advocates of stronger regulation an opening to argue that regulators should toughen their approach.

The Obama administration has argued that it went as hard on banks as possible without further upsetting global finance. Now Democratic lawmakers and administration officials say JPMorgan case proves that more change is needed.

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Swipe Fee Caps Are Here — So Where Are the Savings?

May 08

From:  Time

By Martha C. White

One of the most contentious parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation enacted in the wake of the credit crisis was the Durbin Amendment. You may not know it by name, but you know its primary effect: higher bank fees. It’s also the reason behind those infamous debit card fees banks were threatening to implement last year. Trade groups that pushed for the fee cap said the trade-off would be worth it, because customers would see lower prices in stores. So how’s that working out?

Not so great.

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Microsoft, financial services groups pursued Zeus network as part of aggressive legal strategy

May 02

Editor’s Note:  Additional information and discussion of federal cybersecurity issues may be found on FISMA Focus.

BALTIMORE (Associated Press) — Microsoft and the banking industry on Monday provided a detailed, behind-the-scenes account of an operation they said disrupted a major cybercrime operation that used malicious software to allegedly steal $100 million from consumers over the last five years.

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New York Fed researchers investigate shadow-banking regulation

Apr 25

Editor’s Note:  The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Staff Report, Shadow Banking Regulation, by Tobias Adrian and Adam B. Ashcraft is attached below.

From: CentralBanking.com

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has published a staff report that finds “uneven” progress in achieving a more stable shadow-banking system.

Authors Tobias Adrian and Adam Ashcraft review the rapidly growing literature on shadow banking and provide a “conceptual” framework for its regulation.

Having contributed to the credit boom in the early 2000s, the authors note how shadow banks “collapsed during the financial crisis of 2007–09”. Since that time, regulatory reform efforts have aimed at strengthening the stability of the shadow banking system.

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