As the clock continues to tick down on the U.S.‘s deadline for breaching its debt ceiling, President Obama stepped into the fray by publicly reprimanding Republicans for their lack of action on the issue. Meanwhile, with the House out on recess, the Senate stayed busy with hearings on derivatives rules and housing finance reform. Notably, overhaul of the government-sponsored enterprises appears to be significantly stalled as no Senators expressed any enthusiasm for addressing the issue in the near future. In the administration, the Fed set a higher than anticipated cap on debit interchange fees, which sent Visa and MasterCard shares up, but was not high enough to make the banks happy, and the SEC proposed swap transaction business conduct standards intended to ?level the playing field. Finally, people continue to watch the mutual fund industry as fears of a potential ?breaking the buck event fester due to the Greek, and European-wide debt crisis. See below for a comprehensive look at these issues and others.