Financial Watch

“The battle over reshaping the country’s financial regulation escalated on several fronts Wednesday, with President Obama stepping up his personal efforts to win Senate passage of an ambitious bill while senators from both parties fought to claim the anti-Wall Street mantle. After a White House meeting between Obama and congressional leaders, Republican leaders criticized the Democrats’ proposal for leaving the door open to future bailouts of big financial firms. But the president, who has turned his attention to the financial overhaul after winning passage of health-care legislation, said he was confident that a bipartisan bill could be worked out to ensure that the economy is protected from the collapse of large financial companies.”

U.S President Barack Obama will try to turn up the pressure for an overhaul of Wall Street regulations as he meets on Wednesday with top Democratic and Republican lawmakers to discuss a sweeping package of reforms.

Republicans are seizing on a provision that would allow regulators to step in to dismantle large, troubled firms. They argue that would set the stage for “endless” bailouts of Wall Street, a claim the White House says is false.

The White House meeting, at 10:45 a.m. (1445 GMT), will include Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner. Obama’s Democrats will be represented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer.

After claiming victory on health care overhaul, President Obama is now turning his attention to reshaping the financial regulatory system.

“I think it is one of the president’s top priorities now,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week.

As he did during the yearlong health care battle, the president has invited congressional Republicans and Democrats to meet with him on Wednesday to discuss proposals to overhaul financial regulations. And just like the health care debate, financial reform is becoming increasingly partisan.

Obama hopes the meeting with top lawmakers will help him forge a bipartisan agreement on the issue or at least help win over a few centrist Republicans.

The U.S. economic recovery is on track and labor data should look better moving forward but more banks will fail this year than in 2009, said James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“The situation is improving,” Bullard said in an interview with Dow Jones Monday, adding that “the recovery is on track.” Household spending is looking better and business investment is picking up, he added.

Bullard, however, doesn't expect a V-shaped recovery–meaning rapid economic growth–because of the “damaged” financial sector. He expects to see more bank failures this year than next, mainly due to banks' exposure to commercial real estate.

(KERX 3.00, +0.16, +5.63%) , a biopharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of medically important pharmaceutical products for the treatment of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and renal disease (the “Company”), today announced its results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

At December 31, 2009, the Company had cash, cash equivalents, interest receivable, and investment securities of $35.9 million, as compared to $22.7 million at December 31, 2008.

Headline data rarely tells the whole picture about what is happening. This is true of employment data for April that came roughly in line with consensus estimates. Over the last year the U.S. economy has chugged along at an unimpressive 2% growth rate. Job growth has remained fairly robust despite the slow down. Several factors help to explain why employment data has remained stronger than the economy would usually indicate. We’ve seen a slow down in the rapid growth of productivity that characterized the early parts of the expansion. Immigrant laborers that are bearing a significant brunt from the housing slowdown are unlikely to show up in employment data. Finally, we are seeing robust activity in so-called non-productive economic activity. Lawyers, Accountants, Consultants, and Investment Bankers are in heavy demand yet they do not produce activities that contribute to the output of our nation.