In This Issue:

Leading The Week; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; International; Miscellaneous; and Upcoming Hearings.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

The theme of this past week once again, was crisis. First, in Europe, where the results of the Greek elections on Sunday were met with mixed results – relief that Greek voters approved the status quo, but apprehension that ultimately the country may still have to pull out of the Euro in order to save its economy. Of course, while the world‘s economic future may hinge on what happens in Europe, according to the Atlantic Monthly the global financial leaders simply need to listen to the latest American earworm to solve the continent‘s problems. In the United States, dueling appearances in Ohio by the President Mitt Romney provided insight into how their respective campaigns intend to frame America‘s economy. Romney spoke for 18 minutes outlining the need to end big government while President Obama spoke for close to an hour on the need to leverage strengthening the middle class into an economic recovery—taking the opportunity to call out Romney 13 times. Interestingly, this occurred in the same week that the New York Fed announced it had received, and made profit on, the final payment of liabilities from the fund established to facilitate the sale of Bear Stearns & Co and provide assistance to AIG., potentially closing the books on the first chapter of America‘s financial crisis.