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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
Read full description and reviews.
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
American Banker, Monday, May 12, 2025
Examiner discretion takes center stage in CAMELS debate By Kyle Campbell As freshly appointed agency heads aim to refocus their approaches to supervision, an emerging question is how much discretion will be left for bank examiners — if any at all. Regulators and lawmakers have already sought to remove [...]
Bloomberg, Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Trump Has Cut Thousands of Wall Street Cops While Markets Wobble By Katanga Johnson and Weihua Li Donald Trump’s administration is set to shrink the ranks at the top US financial regulators by more than 2,300 workers, a group that includes bank examiners, criminal investigators and economists. The cuts are the [...]
Marketplace, Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Bird-watching at the Federal Reserve By David Brancaccio Which bird is it: hawk or dove? The guardians of interest rates at the Federal Reserve meet today and tomorrow on what to do about an economy under stress. And President Donald Trump would prefer the Fed be dovish by lowering interest [...]
Issues in Focus
The Vault
Karen Petrou: Why Stablecoin Hegemony Could Cost Too Much
In the battle over stablecoin regulation, defenders of the pending legislation make much of the need for the U.S. to become the dominant global leader. That’s fine, but what if the new stablecoin framework gives the U.S. crypto preeminence at the cost of U.S. bank resilience and macroeconomic growth? That would be a high price to pay, but it’s nonetheless the Faustian bargain lurking in the latest legislation. As our [...]
Karen Petrou: Why Ratings Are Late Matters a Lot
The Wall Street Journal on Friday speculated that CAMELS ratings for the biggest banks are delayed due to looming change in the Board’s supervisory philosophy after Gov. Bowman is confirmed. Or, the Journal speculates, perhaps specific examiner ratings are being overridden by senior officials outside the examination chain of commands. There’s no question that supervisory ratings are on hold, but the reason for the delay will reveal the difference between [...]
Karen Petrou: What Else Should Worry You
Last week, the Washington Post ran an astonishing article, easily overlooked in the personal-finance section. In it, the writer advised the many consumers she said were besieging her with fearful questions about how best to ensure their money is safe in the bank – and, if they’re still worried, where to buy a nice safe. That same day, a friend asked me if his short-term Treasury bills are safe. These [...]