In This Issue:

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

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

Last week provided an excellent frame by which to view the current political and regulatory landscape as we approach the two year anniversary of the signing of the Dodd-Frank Act and also find ourselves 113 days away from the election. In line with criticism that the Administration has been slow walking regulations, the CFTC and the SEC finally agreed to a definition of what constitutes a “swap”—notwithstanding the fact that both agencies have been putting out rules to regulate the market absent this critical component for the last 18 months. At the same time, Congress continued its oversight of Dodd-Frank with hearings to examine the implications of the reforms, as we saw this past week with a multitude of hearings in the House. Juxtaposing these hearings was the growing LIBOR scandal, which depending on one?s perspective either shows that these reforms are not being implemented fast enough or that regardless of regulatory reform, market „irregularities? will continue to occur. In other news, in a thinly veiled campaign event, the White House offered up a series of tax provisions aimed at shoring up small business investment and growth, which while DOA in the Congress, served to form the parameters of a larger political debate about the scope of the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Regardless of where the line is ultimately drawn, at $250,000 or some higher number, the key take away from the President?s proposal is that it makes crystal clear that he intends to engage in substantive tax reform in 2013.