My guess is that Shaun Donovan and Tim Geithner are burning the midnight oil and firing up the afterburners in attempts to wrap this agreement up by Tuesday's State of the Union address.
The Cordray appointment may make bank compliance issues a focus of this year's presidential campaign. Bankers should not think of this potential outcome as good news.
Frivolously adding armor to combat planes makes the aircraft difficult to control and less effective. Weighting down banks with ill-conceived risk mitigation strategies and regulations serves the interests of neither individual banks nor the banking system as a whole.
A Chief Risk Officer can now have significant stature and sway. But that new prominence gives shareholders, regulators, and the media an easy target for ridicule after a corporate stumble.
Banks are receiving huge inflows of non-interest bearing deposits, and are in effect investing the funds in safe and liquid government-backed securities. Great now, but not so good for the long term.
At the World Economic Forum there will be calls for restoring dignity and economic viability to all, but the need for a paradigm shift will remain unacknowledged.
