US lawmakers have punted the problem of mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, probably until 2013 at least. But reforms could take years to implement and a start is long overdue.

Stimulating reform

Business Standard

Barack Obama hasn&rsquo;t run out of change yet. He outlined a radical agenda in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday. He would boost taxes on millionaires, make big banks pay for mass mortgage refinancing and punish multinationals for outsourcing. As ideas, such proposals will resonate with the 99 per cent. As policies, they will mostly be blocked by Republicans in Congress.

The People's President

Apple shareholders must be scratching their heads after the gadget king commissioned a study showing it produces around half-a-million jobs in the United States. After all, subjective reports like this miss the point. Apple has created $400 billion of stock market value over the past three years. That&rsquo;s good for the American economy and capitalism.

Apple's other jobs

Is the Federal Reserve too complex to manage, too? That&rsquo;s usually a question for big banks like JPMorgan, recently humbled by a surprise trading loss. But it&rsquo;s also not a bad one for the Fed. From the presence of JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon on the New York Fed board to the US central bank&rsquo;s forays into housing policy, the Fed seems to be pleasing no-one.

Over Fed

Depressing though it may be to witness days in which American politicos fail to detail policy ideas at their quadrennial presidential conventions, markets needn&rsquo;t fret too much. These pep rally-like events aren&rsquo;t the right occasion to unveil platform specifics. Rhetoric will reign until debates force candidates to flesh out detailed proposals. Until then, investors can just chill out, and watch the spectacle.

Fuzzy politics

The worldwide playing field for banks had been levelling but just got jostled. One of America&rsquo;s top regulators said on Friday the Basel III accord should be scrapped. Thomas Hoenig, vice-chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, urged adoption of a simpler, stricter leverage ratio. A year after Jamie Dimon called the new worldwide global capital standards anti-American, the latest sign of resistance will only stoke fears about the US commitment to new rules.

Daniel Indiviglio