This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) acquired the 60th vote necessary to invoke cloture and bring the financial regulatory bill to a close. An article on Real Clear Politics lays out two of the most important issues left to debate:
One would ban commercial banks from carrying speculative trades with their own money. The other would exempt auto …

Members of Congress are planning to take energy legislation in an entirely new direction in light of the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico. It is unlikely that the president’s compromise – more drilling in the short term and a long term transition to renewable sources – will pass through the Senate. There may not be any …

Last night’s procedural motion to close formal debate turned out to be a far bigger problem than Democrats expected. Not only did the motion fail – it failed with Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) giving Republicans the winning vote. Politically speaking, this is very bad for Dems because now the media will focus on Mr. Nelson’s dissent instead of continuing with …

Following up on our theme from yesterday’s post, it is growing more and more apparent that Goldman Sachs will benefit from this bill – along with the rest of the financial sector.

An article in the Washington Examiner today puts it rather bluntly: “Whenever politicians open up a legislative or regulatory debate, the side with the best lobbyist usually …

The knee-jerk Wall St. response to any sort of regulation from Washington is that it is bad news. As with with healthcare reform, closer political analysis indicates that Dodd’s reform bill may actually aid the financial sector.

As Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics notes:
In fact, Dodd’s bill appears to be riddled with “carve-outs” – provisions written into the bill …

As the newly passed healthcare bill incrementally becomes policy, we will see different sectors of the market impacted at different times. This is becoming apparent already, with the realization that Medicare Advantage plans are going to face “significant cuts” as soon as 2012.

It’s no news that we at Election Stocks have had a good feeling about insurance companies …

Here at Election Stocks, we not only work to form our own analysis but also pay attention to what other experts have to say about the link between public policy and the stock market. We get consistently excited by work from James Altucher or Dan Clifton, but we do not feel quite as enthusiastic about this Barron’s interview with …

Closing more than a year or serious debate, President Obama quickly moved to sign the healthcare reform bill passed by the House late Sunday night. CNBC flashed several healthcare stocks and sectors next to the president’s head as he gave the ceremonial speech, reflecting several results that we predicted….

One of the most principled and dedicated liberals in the House, Congressman Kucinich, announced today after much pressure that he would vote for the Senate healthcare plan.

This greatly improves the odds of healthcare reform being passed by the House. Since Kucinich carries so much clout among congressional liberals, it is quite likely that this will help gap the …

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) recently introduced financial reform bill on the Senate Banking Committee garnered very little support. There appears to be broad criticism on both sides of the aisle. Every Republican on the committee expressed disapproval, and President Obama said it was “a strong foundation” but vowed to work with Dodd to strengthen the legislation. According to this …