Corporate Governance

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said the law could be improved, but does not need to be repealed.

President Obama on Monday formally nominated Richard Cordray to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and promised to fight efforts to weaken what he described as a cornerstone of last year's Wall Street reform legislation. 

"I will fight any efforts to repeal or undermine the important changes that we passed, and we're going stand up this bureau and make sure it is doing the right thing for middle-class families all across the country," Obama said during an announcement in the White House Rose Garden. 

Obama was flanked by Cordray, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Elizabeth Warren, who has been setting up the bureau as a special adviser. Many liberals wanted Warren to head up the bureau, but Republicans had said they would block her appointment. Cordray also faces an uncertain path, as Senate Republicans have reiterated promises to hold up any nominee until changes are made to the agency. 

The Supreme Court rejected efforts to file a massive class-action suit against Wal-Mart Stores for gender discrimination, handing the retail giant and business community a legal victory.

The suit could have involved over 1.5 million current and former female employees of the retail giant and potentially billions of dollars in damages.

The ruling represents a big win for the nation's largest employer and the business community at large as the nation's highest court set boundaries on how a class action suit can be brought against a business.

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Investors and financial institutions are grappling with uncertainty over new Dodd-Frank derivatives rules.

And regulators struggle to meet rulewriting deadlines in the law against a headwind of opposition.

Nearly 40 percent of homeowners with a second mortgage are underwater on their homes.

Many will be watching Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech today — the first since the dismal jobs report released Friday — but few are expecting groundbreaking announcements.

Peter Diamond's withdrawal as a nominee to join the Fed is feeding Democratic frustration.

The Justice Department has filed suit to prevent H&R Block from acquiring one of its rivals in the personal tax preparation software industry, saying the move would thwart competition.

Justice, in announcing the civil antitrust suit on Monday, said H&R Block had explicitly stated that its proposed scooping up of TaxACT would eliminate an adversary. 

As it stands, H&R Block and 2SS Holdings Inc., which makes TaxACT, combine with Intuit, which makes TurboTax and Quicken, to provide 90 percent of sales in digital do-it-yourself tax products. 

“Combining H&R Block and TaxACT would destroy the head-to-head competition between these two companies, leaving only one other major competitor,” Christine Varney, the assistant attorney general who leads Justice's antitrust division, told reporters on a conference call. “That is not enough competition in this important and valuable industry.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted Wednesday to seek public comment on rules proposing tougher oversight for credit rating firms.

The proposals, required by the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law, would hold firms more accountable for how they determine their debt ratings for companies and governments, which can affect investors decisions and if the company can raise or borrow money. 

The big three rating agencies -- Moody's, McGraw Hill's Standard and Poor's and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings -- were criticized for helping fuel the financial crisis by giving low-risk ratings to high-risk mortgage securities that later failed. 

The SEC advanced the rules for public comment by a 5-0 vote. 

House Republicans on Thursday continued to ramp up criticism of a draft executive order by President Obama that would force government contractors to disclose their political contributions.

At a joint hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform and Small Business committees, GOP lawmakers pressed a senior Office of Management and Budget official on the proposal. 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight panel, said the draft order was "Chicago, hardball politics" that could have "a chilling effect" on contractors who want to participate in the political process.

"This executive order is outside of the procurement process," Issa said.

A group of Republican senators is pressuring the White House to remove two picks for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the board filed suit against Boeing over its decision to move production work to a different state.

In a letter sent to the president Wednesday, 19 lawmakers accused the NLRB of conducting "an attack on millions of workers in 22 right-to-work states," calling the lawsuit a "government-led act of intimidation."

They threaten to use "all procedural tools available" to block a pair of NLRB nominees if the White House does not agree to withdraw the picks.

A pair of prominent Republican senators is firing back against a couple of recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions.

Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) plan to introduce legislation this week that would strengthen the protection of right-to-work laws, which say that employees cannot be required to join a union. Such laws are currently on the books in more than 20 states.

The measure is a response to some recent decisions from the NLRB, which filed a complaint against Boeing for moving a second production line from a union plant in Washington state to a non-union facility in South Carolina. 

The board also has signaled that it will push forward with lawsuits against Arizona and South Dakota over state constitutional amendments that say workers can form unions only through secret-ballot elections. 

As Obama pushes for higher taxes on the rich, new data shows the tax bill for the wealthy is already growing.

And despite a high corporate tax rate, American businesses pay only slightly more than their foreign counterparts thanks to tax breaks and loopholes.

China is becoming increasingly concerned about the valuation of its currency.

General Motors, back from bankruptcy, is poised to reclaim its spot as the top auto manufacturer from Toyota.

The rate of television ownership in America has fallen for the first time in 20 years.