Chemical Sky Death Replaces CDOs As Main Threat To America
Whoah hey a House-Senate conference committee stayed up all night and came up with a compromise version of the financial reform bill! Does it contain a substantive section on derivatives reform? Well, "banks and their parent companies [must] segregate much of their derivatives activities into a separately capitalized subsidiary," so, we'll say ... sure, maybe.It's not as tough as Blanche "I Hate Derivatives So Much" Lincoln's proposal, but it's apparently tougher than it would have ended up being had she lost her primary. Now the combined bill has to pass the House and Senate, which surely will be just a formality, right? [ NYT ]Australia has a new prime minister, because the ruling Labour Party got sick of the old one and just stone cold replaced him, with a lady. [ BW ]
Do you live in the eastern half of North America? Well, prepare to be killed! Russian scientists predict that the chemical dispersal agent BP is pumping into the Gulf of Mexico will be sucked up into the clouds and rain toxic death down onto you. [ EU Times ]
Nancy Pelosi grudgingly agreed to let the House approve the Senate's plan to stop a cut in doctors' Medicare fees, even though the law "wasn’t even really that well written." (Nancy Pelosi is a master prose stylist when it comes to legislation, and sneers at lesser literary lights.) [ NYT ]