Many of us saw the outburst recently on CNBC by outspoken financial analyst/entertainer Jim Cramer:
Most people probably have at least a solid idea of the financial mechanisms he’s imploring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to control. For a reliable and accessible review of some basic governmental controls of financial markets, the best source, as usual, is the Congressional Research Service…
This report details the Federal Reserve system:
In 1913, Congress created the Federal Reserve System to serve as the central bank for the United States. The Federal Reserve formulates the nation’s monetary policy, supervises and regulates banks, and provides a variety of financial services to depository financial institutions and the federal government. The System comprises three major components, the Board of Governors, a network of 12 Federal Reserve Banks, and member banks. Congress created the Federal Reserve as an independent agency to enable the central bank to carry out its responsibilities protected from excessive political and private pressures…
For the other part of the equation, the “subprime” mortgages, whose purported effects the Fed is being asked to control, you could see this recent report, entitled Subprime Mortgages: Primer on Current Lending and Foreclosure Issues.
Subprime mortgages are loans extended to borrowers with weak credit profiles. Subprime mortgages entail higher risk of delinquency and default. Recent increases in subprime borrower foreclosures and lender bankruptcies have prompted concerns that some lenders’ underwriting guidelines are too loose and that some borrowers may not have fully understood the risks of the mortgage products they chose. Regulatory agencies are revisiting the guidance they provide lenders and are reevaluating required disclosures to consumers. In addition, Congress is holding hearings on the subject and may consider consumer protection legislation.
Both the government and the issues it deals with are more accessible when you’ve got access to the research Congress relies on to be reliably aware.
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Lobbying Update: Part 2 | The Open House Project // Aug 21, 2007 at 2:23 pm
[...] The CRS Reports section has seen the smallest amount of actual progress, although it seems to me that the reports have been in the news more often, and we’ve been pushing for reports to be used more often for reliable unbiased information, by posting CRS reports on Tuesdays that are relevant to the week’s news stories. I’m also interested in identifying other sorts of incremental steps we could ask for, such as access to a subject list of CRS topics, or getting access to reports with the authors’ names redacted. I really feel like public access is ultimately inevitable, especially when people process just how obnoxious it is that they’re for sale, through some unknown mechanism. I could be wrong about this, but doesn’t it seem at least unseemly to provide access to government documents for profit? [...]
Mortgage Discussion Blog » Late breaking news // Aug 22, 2007 at 3:04 am
[...] CRS Tuesday: <b>Mortgages</b>, the Federal Reserve, and the Angry Analyst [...]
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