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Issues In Focus
The latest in-depth FedFin analysis on breaking strategic challenges and critical policy question.
Financial Services Alert
This analytical service is a battery of alerts and analyses that keep senior management up to the minute on federal developments that affect strategy and the bottom line.
Financial Services Management
Financial Services Management is the analytical resource for senior management. Sharp and concise, it provides detailed discussions of the implications of a wide range of federal actions.
GSE Activity Report
GSE Activity Report is the only analytical service so objective that the GSEs and their harshest critics, as well as the government and investors, all rely on it.
Expert Analysis and Testimony
Federal Financial Analytics managing partner Karen Petrou has on a selective basis agreed to serve as an expert witness in litigation germane to matters such as director-and-officer liability related to regulatory requirements, the manner in which financial institutions are resolved, and the role forward-looking regulatory planning plays in M&A transactions, contractual matters, and related corporate actions.
Engine of Inequality, by Karen Petrou
The first book to reveal how the Federal Reserve holds the key to making us more economically equal, written by an author with unparalleled expertise in the real world of financial policy.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible.
“Petrou’s book uncovers a hidden engine of our skyrocketing inequality: financial-policy. In an accessible and engaging prose, Petrou takes us through the inner workings of monetary policy at the Fed and financial regulations, how they’ve made inequality worse and how they could instead be retooled to take us to a more equitable future. A novel look at the problem of inequality and bold ideas to help resolve it. A must read.”—Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley and author of The Triumph of Injustice
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Industry Expert
Federal Financial Analytics (FedFin) is a Washington-based financial services-consulting firm that has for decades attracted a high-powered clientele in Washington, on Wall Street, and among global central bankers. Since 1985 FedFin has provided a unique blend of analysis and strategic advice on public policy, regulatory, and legislative issues for industry and governmental clients doing business in the U.S. and abroad.
A proprietary think-tank for its clients, FedFin reviews critical federal and global policy developments in banking, insurance, asset management, and mortgage finance, analyzes them in great depth, and then advises clients on whether what they want can be made to work for them, within the policy environment and for the financial system. It is FedFin’s guiding principle to be an honest broker, and clients depend on the fact that the firm does not offer lobbying or any other services that could compromise its objectivity and independence.
As seen In:
In the News
Politico, Monday, November 18, 2024
The one institution that Trump can’t afford to break Some of Trump’s closest advisers are angling for the president-elect to choose a candidate who will shake things up at Treasury. By Sam Sutton Donald Trump has chosen to move fast and break things with his early picks for top Cabinet [...]
American Banker, Thursday, November 7, 2024
Changes coming to the Fed in a Trump presidency By Kyle Campbell Donald Trump's return to power all but guarantees that changes are coming to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, but the range of potential shake-ups varies widely. At a minimum, Trump will have the opportunity to appoint two [...]
Marketplace, Morning Report, Thursday, November 7, 2024
Why the economy drove voters toward Donald Trump Host Davis Brancaccio talks to Federal Financial Analytics' managing partner, Karen Petrou about how economic inequality explains a lot of votes for Donald Trump. https://www.marketplace.org/2024/11/07/why-the-economy-drove-voters-toward-donald-trump/
Issues in Focus
The Vault
Karen Petrou: Why Banks Need More Than Just New Capital Rules
Bankers complain with considerable fervor about a “tsunami of new rules.” There has certainly been a flood of standards indirectly implemented by supervisors, simply demanded by the CFPB, proposed, and finalized. It’s thus understandable that bankers think they’re drowning. But, as forest fires rage in Brooklyn and much of the nation is conserving water, it’s important to recall that too little rain is also dangerous. Which brings me to the [...]
FedFin Assessment: It’s Still Not Game-On for Most Bank Mergers
As promised, this post-election forecast looks at bank-merger policy, providing a cautionary note in response to the go-go, game-on forecasts for new mergers often touted by investment bankers. While community- and midsize-bank mergers will move with more certainty, more alacrity is unlikely unless the OCC and FRB join the FDIC with at least an initial deadline. The same banking-agency staff who will work on bank mergers next year are also [...]
FedFin Assessment: The Complex Outlook for Consumer-Finance Regulation
As with merger policy (see forthcoming FedFin report), consumer-finance regulation will be crafted in the Trump Administration by complex pull-backs of current, progressive standards and pull-forward of populist goals which often parallel progressive ones. This is most clearly the case where powerful business lobbies such as merchants wield the greatest force (e.g., interchange fees), but will also be evident in consumer-privacy, tech-platform, credit-card, and “relationship-banking” efforts. This report assesses these [...]