The Paul Volcker Surge

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After a spell in the political wilderness, where his financial reform proposals received scant attention, Paul Volcker looks to be fully back in the mix. The former Federal Reserve chairman from 1979 to 1987, Volcker now has the ear of both Obama and the current Fed chair, Ben Bernanke. According to a Bloomberg story today, Volcker met with Bernanke six times—five of which were one-on-one meetings—between January and November 2009; by contrast, Volcker met with Bernanke only once in the year before that. And it’s obvious that Volcker has had plenty of contact with the top financial gurus in the Obama administration: After all, the president’s push to ban proprietary trading by throwing up a firewall between commercial banks’ deposits and their riskier trading operations is being called the “Volcker Rule.” 

For the most part, this surge of Paul Volcker’s is a good thing. Since Obama took office last year Volcker has been pushing rigorous, important reforms—reining too-big-to-fail institutions, restoring parts of the Glass-Steagall Act—but had clashed with administration officials like National Economic Council Director Larry Summers and hadn’t exerted much influence despite his stature as one of the leading economists in the country. A veteran of Beltway economic policy, Volcker also appears to have little patience for powerful lobbyists like the US Chamber of Commerce or the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) who support “reform lite.” And while Volcker’s backing of the Fed to keep its watchdog role overseeing financial institutions and consumer protection may not be best for the country, given how poorly the Fed did that job before the crisis, his rise within the financial reform debate can only improve the odds for a bill that actually limits excessive risk-taking and tries to prevent future crises.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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