Right around this time, five years ago, what would eventually become the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was making its way through Congress. A key provision in the bill was Title 9, subtitle C — Improvements to the Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies. Ratings agencies took a lot of the blame for the crisis, after they flat-out failed to rate risky bonds properly.

Dodd Frank was supposed to change things for the better, but five years later, things remain very much the same, with the big three agencies even stronger. Fitch, Moody’s and S&P, still account for more than 95 percent of all ratings.

The ratings agencies paid a fraction of the fines of the big banks, and their conflicts of of interest remain: namely that they get paid by the companies they rate.

Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal spoke with Tim Martin of the Wall Street Journal about what’s going on in the world of credit ratings, and whether there may be any meaningful alternatives in the future. http://www.marketplace.org/2016/03/11/world/big-three-credit-ratings-agencies-still-hold-huge-amount-power

Listen to the full interview in the player above. 

Europe: Overproduction/Stagnation in Finance Capital  Faced with a eurozone economy stubbornly resistant to revival, the European Central Bank on Thursday went where no central bank — at least no major one — had gone before.

It said it would effectively pay commercial banks money to borrow central bank funds.

The offer, one of a half-dozen measures the central bank announced on Thursday, means banks that participate would pay back less at the end of the four-year loan than they borrowed. It’s the same as if your bank offered you a no-interest loan, plus a free toaster as a bonus.

Banks will qualify for the money only if they lend it on to consumers and businesses. And there are other conditions. The money cannot be used for mortgages, for example.

The step represented a significant escalation of the E.C.B.’s efforts to get banks to lend more money, apply a jolt to the eurozone economy and head off the threat of a destructive decline in prices known as deflation.

The barrage of other measures included an increase in the purchases of government bonds and other assets. The purchases will rise to 80 billion euros, or about $88 billion, a month, up from the current level of €60 billion. In another unprecedented step for the eurozone, the central bank will begin buying corporate bonds as part of the monthly asset purchases.  www.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/business/international/ecb-draghi-europe.html?_r=0

Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 32 percent of all people in poverty. Many more children live in families with incomes just above the poverty threshold.1 Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children’s experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.
How many children under age 18 years live in low-income families in the United States?
Children by family income, 2014
ENLARGE
Figure 1: Children by family income, 2014
There are nearly 72 million children under age 18 years in the United States.
44 percent – 31.4 million – live in low-income families
21 percent – 15.4 million – live in poor families  www.richgibson.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=19216&action=edit