Author: admin

By Suzanne De Vita

(TNS)—Donald Trump faces a major hurdle in fulfilling his pledge to do a “big number” on the Dodd-Frank Act: persuading enough Democrats to go along.

That’s why Republican lawmakers say they are considering a backup plan for dismantling parts of the financial rules overhaul that wouldn’t require support from a single Democrat.

In the narrowly-divided Senate, most bills need 60 votes to become law. But Republicans are looking into ramming through changes with just 51 votes through a complicated process known as budget reconciliation.

To do that, they’d need to demonstrate that the financial regulations are draining the government’s checkbook. For instance, they’d have to supply evidence federal expenditures would be reduced if hedge funds got a break on regulations. Or that the nation’s fiscal health would improve if the Treasury Department doesn’t help failing banks.

The strategy is already being used to go after Obamacare. Key Republicans, including House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, have said it’s also an option for targeting at least some aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law.

Republicans are constrained in which parts of the law they can kill because of the need to show a direct effect on federal spending. Still, reconciliation is an “attractive option,” as the prospect of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to compromise on any legislation dims, Brian Gardner, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.

“It’s plausible you could do this, but the next part is the hard part—finding out what works,” says Norbert Michel, a financial regulation fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “It’s torturous logic to make anything fit within the limits of reconciliation.”

House lawmakers, led by Hensarling, are planning to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would make changes to Dodd-Frank, Republicans have said. Trump supports ripping up the law, saying this week that it’s a “disaster” that has made it difficult for businesses to get loans and that he wants to do a “big number” on the measure. If Hensarling’s bill fails to pass in the House or dies in the Senate, Republicans might then turn to reconciliation.

Here’s an overview of how it works and what parts of Dodd-Frank Republicans might be able to go after.

Reconciliation and Dodd-Frank: The Basics
Budget reconciliation, used to reduce the U.S. deficit, is a multi-step process in both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers are limited in the nature of what can be included in the legislation.

Republicans don’t have a problem passing legislation in the House. The Senate, where they hold 52 of 100 seats, poses the bigger challenge.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is leading the charge in his chamber to identify what aspects of Dodd-Frank can be altered through reconciliation.

“There’s a long list of what we can do,” Toomey said in an interview, declining to give specifics. “We’re still refining it.”

Republicans will have to demonstrate that overhauling any part of Dodd-Frank they seek to eliminate will help the U.S. reduce costs or increase revenues. That requires getting an assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and sign-off …read more

From:: Real Estate News

By Suzanne De Vita

Here’s a lesson about what not to do on social media.

There are so many pros to connecting on the web: social media expands your reach, helps you build your sphere of influence, and, ultimately, helps you strengthen relationships that are necessary to fuel your business. Unfortunately, the free exchange we value so much on the internet and social media has also encouraged troll culture—people who post deliberately hateful or provocative messages on social with the intention of causing mass chaos. Not cool.

However, just last week, one REALTOR® from Peoria, Ill., learned exactly how posting on social media could ruin his business when he engaged in some Twitter beef with the Emmy-winning comedian Patton Oswalt. Here’s what went down.

In response to one of Oswalt’s political tweets, Tony Brust, a now-former agent for Jim Maloof/Realtor®’s Pekin office responded: “Oh (bleep), the little troll has an opinion again.”

To which comedy writer Chris Conroy responded:

@tonybrust@pattonoswalt Everyone stop having opinions! You’re upsetting Tony Brust!

— Chris Conroy (@conniewriter) January 31, 2017

And now for the worst of it: the part Brust tried to hide by deleting his Twitter account. But thanks to the internet Powers That Be, the entire exchange was captured in eternity via screenshots:

@tonybrust @pattonoswalt hey tony, your tweet is missing. Don’t worry I saved it for you pic.twitter.com/E4KgAf0naa
— Nick Mundy (@dickfundy) January 31, 2017

Oswalt’s wife, Michelle McNamara, tragically and unexpectedly passed away at the age of 46 just last April.

The incident went viral and Brust quickly found himself on the wrong side of Oswalt’s 3.39 million followers, who bombarded Brust in defense of Oswalt and his wife’s memory. (Oswalt responded himself, but later deleted his responses and apologized.) It was a Twitter storm of epic proportions and Brust was (obviously) on the losing end of it.

So here’s a clue for you to buy, Brust (and a lesson all of us in the biz should learn): What you say on the internet is immortal. It’s public, it can be saved by anyone, and it can and will be used against you, especially if you decide to use social media’s powers for evil, rather than good. Don’t follow Brust’s lead, don’t be a troll, and perhaps most importantly…don’t bring up a man’s dead wife, celebrity or otherwise. But then again, that has nothing to do with real estate. That’s just being a decent human being.

Social media is the most powerful tool you can use in your business, and most of the time, you’ll meet amazing people and improve your business across the board. But don’t lose sight of the prize, because what you say on social also has the power to take you down, and you don’t want to become the subject of the next viral story taking flight in the industry.

And I’m pretty sure Brust’s next employer will know how to Google…

Nick Caruso is RISMedia’s senior editor. Email him your real estate news ideas at nick@rismedia.com.

This …read more

From:: Real Estate News