Word: marching
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fresh idea comes from Eric Dinallo, the New York state insurance superintendent, who in a March 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed suggested that insurance commissioners mediate the ratings process, since insurers are among the largest buyers of rated bonds. Regulators would collect a fee from insurance outfits and then use the money to buy ratings for everyone to use. If the ratings proved too rosy over time - or inaccurate in another way - regulators would switch to a different ratings company...
Many finance experts think the rules fall far short. Including, it seems, the SEC's new chairman, Mary Schapiro. In congressional testimony on March 11, two months after she was confirmed to her post, Schapiro said, "I'm not sure if it's enough, to be perfectly honest." On April 15, the SEC will hold a roundtable, to hear from the ratings firms about what they have done to improve things on their own, and also from people who think the entire issuer-pays model needs to be scrapped. "There have been some very thoughtful proposals out there...
...rose more than a fifth against the dollar in the last four months of 2008, as previously big-spending investors cashed in risky assets overseas and brought their earnings home. But that's changing. Japan's economy is in freefall. In its latest assessment of the global economy published March 19, the International Monetary Fund forecast the country's output shrinking by 5.8% this year, much more than in the U.S. or eurozone. With interest rates close to zero for months now, there's speculation Japan could intervene to weaken the yen in order to help stoke its all-important...
...Switzerland's one step further along. In an effort to fend off the threat of deflation, the Swiss National Bank announced March 12 it would dump francs in the first such move by a major central bank for years. The move was enough to cut 3% off the currency's value against the euro; since then, the franc's fallen further still. Even the greenback, which rallied in recent months, stands at its lowest level against the euro since early January following the Fed's announcement last week that it would spend some $1.2 trillion on government and mortgage bonds...
...March 20 the EPA sent what is called an "endangerment finding" to the White House, a proposal that means the agency found that there is a scientific case that man-made global warming poses a threat to human welfare. (Reporters found out about the EPA decision the following Monday, after it was posted on a government website.) The finding is a response to an April 2007 Supreme Court decision ordering the EPA to figure out how CO2 from cars should be regulated under the Clean...