In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; Miscellaneous; and Upcoming Hearings.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

On Sunday, Spain announced that it would be seeking a bailout and the Eurozone banks agreed to lend Spain 100 billion euros ($125 billion dollars) in order to stabilize its banks. The decision was applauded by Secretary Geithner who noted that the move was vitally important for the health of the Eurozone as a whole. This development will only serve to increase focus on the Federal Reserve to see if the deepening European troubles will cause the central bank to react with new monetary policy fixes to buffer the U.S. economy, a point raised during a Joint Economic Committee earlier this week where Chairman Ben Bernanke played coy about the Fed?s future plans. Adding to the drama in Europe, in a surprise move, earlier in the week the People?s Bank of China cut interest rates for the first time in four years. Countervailing these developments that may portend the possible future collapse of the global economy, regulators continued to implement financial reform, and though many were expecting fireworks at a Senate Banking Committee hearing to examine the implementation efforts, particularly in light of the JP Morgan trading loss, other than harsh questions for the OCC, it seemed as if most Senators were content to keep with the status quo.