Today's Highlights

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Israel and Palestinians meet in direct talks; will meet again in two weeks

Today

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton brought together Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their first face-to-face meeting on Middle East peace talks since December 2008. Read More »

In remarks by special State Dept. Envoy George Mitchell, he said that the first round of talks have concluded and that the Israelis and Palestinians will meet again in the Middle East on Sept. 14th and 15th. Sec. of State Clinton will also attend those meetings. He also stated that both parties have agreed on several points of discussion including to have a two state solution and to complete the talks in one year.

President Obama met yesterday with the leaders of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority and later hosted a working dinner at the White House with the four leaders.

Financial Policy

Campaign 2010

Bernanke tells Panel "too-big-to-fail problem must be solved"

Bernanke tells Panel "too-big-to-fail problem must be solved"

Today

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Sheila Bair stressed the importance of finding new ways to handle future financial threats today at a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) hearing.

Bernanke told the commission that federal regulators could have done a better job dealing with the 2008 mortgage crisis. Speaking out against the concept of too big to fail, the chairman said that the Fed must be ready to shut down the largest institutions if they threaten to break the financial system. "There must be a credible way to let large companies fail," said Bernanke. "If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved."

Following his testimony, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said her department is working to create an interim rule to assist large financial companies when they are faced with near-collapse. She also noted that under new financial laws, regulators now have the ability to break up important financial firms if they fail to cooperate during times of crisis.

Yesterday, former Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Dick Fuld placed blame for his company’s bankruptcy on government regulators, saying they were not given the same aid that was its competitors received. Fuld went on to say that the same regulators relied on “flawed information” when assessing Lehman's financial state.

The 10-member bipartisan commission was created by Congress to investigate the 2008 financial crisis; it's due to report its findings this December.
Panel Examines the Tea Party Movement

Panel Examines the Tea Party Movement

Today

The American Political Science Association (APSA) held their annual meeting in Washington, D.C. over the next three days. One of today's panel discussions will address “Tea Parties and the Future of Big Government.”

Earlier this week, Incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski conceded the Republican primary to her Tea Party-backed challenger Joe Miller, in what political analysts are calling the biggest upset of the election year thus far.

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