In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; House of Representatives; White House; SEC; CFTC; FTC; Miscellaneous; and UPCOMING HEARINGS.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

With the end of the week showing yet another solid showing in the jobs numbers, the Department of Labor reported that 227,000 jobs were added to our economy in February, it must have been serendipitous that we also saw an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives come together to pass the so-called JOBS Act, a package of small business capital formation bills. Could this be the rekindling of bipartisanship in Congress? Perhaps, but only time, and maybe the transportation bill will tell, however it was fascinating that the largest partisan fireworks during the debate on the JOBS Act had do with which Congressman should get ownership over a section of the bill and not whether history will judge the JOBS Act in the same disastrous public policy vein as many progressives view Gram-Leach-Bliley. The other major news of the past week was that yet more Administration officials, including the Secretary of the Treasury, were quoted in public as calling for a delay in the implementation of the Volcker Rule. It is unclear whether these calls for delays will result in a re-proposal of the controversial rule, or whether they are part of strategy to push the official start date until after the elections, for a potentially different Congress or Executive branch to deal with it.

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