Under withering questioning from Elizabeth Warren, a top education official conceded that the companies will get more money regardless of any changes they make to their operations.

Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.

Warren took bank regulators to task on Thursday about the fact that British bank HSBC is still doing business in the U.S., with no criminal charges filed against it, despite confessing to what one regulator called "egregious" money laundering violations.

This is good news. The longer they can stretch this out, the less leverage the Republicans will have: Treasury Department officials said Monday that they will begin to take extraordinary actions Friday to manage the government's finances so the