TRP Financial Services Report

On Tuesday the voters in Mississippi will have the privilege of helping to determine whether the ascending trajectory the pundits placed back on the Tea Party following Majority Leader Cantor’s primary defeat maintains momentum or loses steam. While the media often focuses on the extremes of both parties, it is important to remember that the work gets done in the middle and as a recent report by the group Third Way, shows, it appears that there is fertile ground there to move forward on a lot of the big issues facing our country. Government shouldn’t make good television, and if you’ve ever watched C-SPAN you know why, but we need to find a way past the noise of the talking heads to address the major fiscal and economic issues facing our country. We will find out on Tuesday which direction we are heading.

Looking ahead, today the House is scheduled to consider legislation to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Late last week the White House announced that it strongly opposes the measure, but is worth noting that it did not issue a veto threat on the bill. The Financial Services Committee has a full week, and leads off with Treasury Secretary Lew testifying on Tuesday morning about the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

On Wednesday, Chairman Hensarling will ramp up his attacks against the Export Import Bank. Now that he has the support of the new Majority Leader, we should anticipate some real fireworks at this hearing. Also, there was a report late on Friday that Leader Reid may try to bring the Senate’s version of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) up this week. And a busy week for Treasury Secretary Jack Lew vis-à-vis his FSOC duties. In addition to testifying before the House on Tuesday and the Senate on Wednesday, the FSOC will host closed meeting on Tuesday, where among other things the Council will discuss recent developments in the markets and receive an update on short term wholesale funding markets.

The full edition of this week's Thorn Run Partner's Financial Services Report is available here and below.