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Portability, ownership and innovation are three key features of 401(k) plans that make them worth keeping. That was the case laid out by Paul Schott Stevens at a "town hall" meeting in Los Angeles this afternoon. The remarks lay out a defense of the mutual fund-heavy savings vehicle even as the plans have come under attack for the fees charged by mutual fund firms. 

New York, NY – Leaders in the U.S. Senate recently introduced a bill that would help significantly shift the direction of the financial sector toward the common good by ensuring that independent directors, not industry executives, regulate the big banks. Introduced on May 22 by Senator Bernie Sanders, with co-sponsors Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Mark Begich, “The Federal Reserve Independence Act” (S.3219) would prohibit banking industry executives from serving as directors of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks.

While that may sound like good news, it may be masking underlying problems, researchers have found in a new study.

I recently posted a piece about legislation pending in Congress that would restrict the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the derivatives market. Chapter two of that story is the struggle of the CFTC Commissioners to provide formal guidance establishing the scope of its own jurisdiction under Dodd-Frank Act over activities taking place beyond the U.S. borders. The outcome is critically important.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts from their treasuries to influence elections, states have passed a variety of innovative measures to regulate corporate cash in elections, a new report by the Corporate Reform Coalition shows.

The big stock market slide of the past month has been bad news for the over 50 million Americans with 401(k) plans. Many of these investors have yet to recover from the 2008 crash and have been counting on a market upswing to make up for lost ground.

Do you know how much you’re paying in 401(k) fees?

Andrea Mulhearn Brobst wants a full-time job.

Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading CommissionThe massive and lavishly funded opposition to reasonable financial reform still wages a multi-front war to preserve the risk-oriented business model that produced the financial crisis of 2008.