Regulation

President Obama unveiled a plan to overhaul regulation of the nation's financial institutions Wednesday. He blamed the current economic crisis on a culture of irresponsibility by Wall Street, Main Street and Washington. Obama also said the government had to do more to protect consumers. The effort requires congressional action and would represent the most substantial revamping of the regulatory structure since the Great Depression.

"We view handset exclusivity as one part of a much larger problem of the growing power of service providers," says Michael Calabrese, vice-president of think tank New America Foundation. During the proceedings, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass. ...

Douglas Rediker, Director, Global Strategic Finance Initiative at the New America Foundation discusses President Obama's financial regulatory plan and his proposed reforms for the Federal Reserve.  Link to audio

If the bankruptcy and restructuring of GM proceed according to the Obama administration's plan, then the U.S. government will end up owning about 60 percent of the ailing carmaker. The de facto nationalization of GM, added to the de facto nationalization of AIG and various banks and the renationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is a threat to the healthy distinction between the private sector and the public sector.

Technology evangelists believe that Barack Obama has the potential to fundamentally alter communication between the presidency and the people. Wikis in the White House? Online public comments on legislation? A real-time two-way conversation between citizens and their elected officials?

For better or worse, however, nothing is as easy as it might seem. Federal regulations, First Amendment issues, and just plain common sense are going to slow -- and potentially stagnate -- technological innovation in Washington.

What ever caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis to become a full-blown credit freeze, it's clear that at its core were bad mortgage loans made to borrowers who didn't understand the long-term implications of the loan by lenders acting in their own self-interest. Meanwhile, credit card balances and delinquencies, caused in part by confusing terms and ineffective disclosures, are skyrocketing. And, without easy and automatic ways to save, the personal savings rate is mired at or below 1%.

A new approach to the way we write the… more

The policies set by the U.S. federal government on media ownership have tremendous impact on community media that traditionally has played an important role in fostering community awareness and involvement. For local municipalities and constituencies, the on-the-ground media ownership rules ultimately boils down to the question of how diverse the opinions expressed in local media will be and how representative of topical issues the local news will be.

The past twenty years have seen an unprecedented number of media mergers spanning… more

Schwartz Fellow

Reihan Salam writes on politics, culture, and technology, and was previously an associate editor at The Atlantic, a producer for NBC News, a junior editor and editorial researcher at The New York Times, a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. He is the co-author of… more

"Free My Phone" was the impassioned headline of Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, who took both the wireless carriers and the FCC to task for not giving consumers the choice to use the devices and applications of their choice. Currently, wireless carriers can restrict the phones and other devices consumers can use on their network, what device features they can access, and what software applications and content they can download. This "locking and blocking"… more

It's more than a little difficult to imagine Angelo Mozilo, the embattled chief executive of mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial, being a Drucker disciple. But just last year he didn't hesitate to paint himself that way and, in at least one sense, he was right.

"As the late Peter Drucker once said, the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity," Mozilo told an audience of bond holders, bankers, and others. "This is the essence… more