Ben Bernanke was thick in the middle of the AIG bailouts with Henry Paulson, Tim Geithner and Lloyd...

Follow along as I keep my friends and neighbors in upstate New York informed about the efforts of Congress to reform Wall Street.

Greetings to all my friends in upstate New York.

As many of you know, I've been in Washington working on a project to help bring transparency...

We could use some banks with glass walls... Banks that don't operate like black boxes and put the entire economic system at risk with their risky trading ventures.

Congress is hearing the roar coming from the people.

No more bailouts... fair fees... access to credit No predatory lending....

The confirmation of Ben Bernanke moved a step forward today.... the vote was 16 - 7 in favor...

But an expanding group of Senators is questioning the role of Chairman Bernanke over his role in the bailout of AIG, Goldman Sachs and European banks in September...

If you don't work on Wall Street then most financial products probably look complex and risky.

As the House of Representatives debates the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173) several Republican representatives, including Scott Garrett, have questioned whether derivatives helped create the financial crisis.

Well......

The House of Representatives has begun the debate on the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act... (HR 4173)

The real devil lurking in the details is the regulation of derivatives...

The weeds of the competing legislative proposals are a little thick but the high level concept...

I'm sitting in the Senate Banking Committee hearing on "Weathering the Storm: Creating Jobs in the Recession"....

It's desolation central. Only one Senator is attending the hearing... Sherrod Brown of Ohio who chairs the Economic Policy Subcommittee and organized the hearing.

The audience is sparse... two...