Regulators on the road:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra will speak at a field hearing Wednesday at the Brooklyn Law School, examining “zombie” home mortgages.
• Stephen Goss, chief actuary at the Social Security Administration, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) join the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Funding Our Future coalition Tuesday to discuss the legislative landscape around social security.

Hearings of note:

• The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee on Wednesday will consider the nomination of Julie Su to serve as labor secretary.
• Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will testify in a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
• The chief executives of Experian PLC, TransUnion and Equifax Inc. will testify before the Senate Banking Committee in a Thursday oversight hearing on credit reporting agencies.
• Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday in a “Hearing on Accountability and Transparency.”

Worth watching:

• Sarah Bloom Raskin, distinguished professor at Duke Law School and former deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, will join the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Wednesday for an event titled, “US bank supervision and deposit insurance after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”
• No fedspeak roundup this week, as the central bank enters a media blackout ahead of the May 2-3 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Regulators regulating

• Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr is leading an effort to close a regulatory loophole that allows some banks to boost the amount of money they report that’s held in reserves, obscuring losses on securities, according to people familiar with the matter. (The Wall Street Journal)
• During more than four hours of testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler held steadfast to his position that crypto trading firms should be strictly regulated. (CNBC)
• Gensler also said in an interview that taming the risks associated with hedge funds and other nonbank financial institutions is “more important than ever” following turmoil last month in U.S. government bonds after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Gensler, whose suggestion of increased SEC scrutiny of these funds could mean increased disclosures or more contact with institutions, said that he wants to better understand how highly leveraged bets by such institutions could spill out into the broader economy. (Financial Times)

Lawmakers lawmaking 

• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unveiled the text of a bill that would raise the country’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion through March 2024 while proposing $4.5 trillion in cuts, limiting spending growth to 1% per year, clawing back unspent COVID-19 federal funds, rescinding billions in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service and eliminating the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. (USA Today) 
• In addition to canceling Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 for some student loan debtors, the GOP bill would nix the administration’s new proposal to lower the repayment burden for some borrowers on income-driven repayment plans, as well as permanently prohibit the Education Department from executive actions or regulations that would increase the long-term cost to the government of operating the federal student loan programs. (Politico)
• Three bills being floated in the House would loosen regulations for private-equity managers in moves meant to push back against the Biden administration’s strategy to impose stricter regulations on the industry. A bill introduced by Reps. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) would give retail investors easier access to private equity through closed-end funds, and two bills from Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Financial Services subcommittee on financial institutions, would exempt more private equity and venture capital firms from SEC oversight, with the aim of increasing capital flows to small business. (The Wall Street Journal)
• President Joe Biden signed an executive order that includes more than 50 directives for various cabinet-level agencies aimed at increasing the affordability of child care and improving access, federal coverage and transparency for home care services, including for veterans. (NBC News)

Economists … being annoyingly ambiguous 

• The Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book survey of regional economic conditions that economic activity had remained unchanged in recent weeks, but it sees signs of slowing as spending and credit tighten. The Fed noted that prices continued to increase, although the rate of increases was slowing, and “several districts noted that banks tightened lending standards amid increased uncertainty and concerns about liquidity.” (Bloomberg)

104%

That’s the rate of inflation in Argentina, where the Argentine peso hit a record low against the dollar in trading on unofficial markets last week, as traders sought a safe haven in the U.S. currency. Meanwhile, Argentina’s central bank raised its interest rate by 300 basis points to 81%. 

1) Consumers Face Worsening Financial Well-Being Following a Year of Inflation, Nagging Debt

Amanda Jacobson Snyder, Morning Consult

2) Fed Rethinks Loophole That Masked Losses on SVB’s Securities

Andrew Ackerman and Rachel Louise Ensign, The Wall Street Journal

3) Americans are struggling to pay off their car loans. Three charts explain why 

 Christopher Hickey, CNN

4) Supreme Court Opens Path to Curbing FTC, SEC Powers

Jan Wolfe and Dave Michaels, The New York Times

5) White House closely tracking commercial real estate -White House economist

Andrea Shalal, Reuters

6) Climate Rules Expose Surprising Splits Among Businesses

Shane Shifflett and Jean Eaglesham, The Wall Street Journal

7) US regulator calls for greater scrutiny of hedge funds after bond turmoil

Laura Noonan et al., Financial Times

8)  A Black family says they ‘whitewashed’ their home to get a higher appraisal. They’re not the only ones 

Nicquel Terry Ellis, The Philadelphia Tribune

9) Fidelity and State Street Push to Make 401(k)s More Like Pensions

Anne Tergesen, The Wall Street Journal

10) Lawmakers Float Bills to Loosen Restrictions on Private Equity

Chris Cumming, The Wall Street Journal

• Depositors pull nearly $60bn from three US banks as Apple raises pressure (Financial Times)
• JPMorgan’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Were Deeper Than the Bank Has Acknowledged (The Wall Street Journal)
• Goldman Sachs profit falls on sluggish deals and bond trading, Marcus loss (Reuters)
• Bank of America posts first-quarter results that top expectations on higher rates (CNBC)
• Morgan Stanley tops estimates on better-than-expected bond trading revenue (CNBC)
• CFPB Says Staffer Sent 250,000 Consumers’ Data to Personal Account (The Wall Street Journal)
• Gensler defends SEC’s crypto crackdown in marathon House hearing (CNBC)
• EU lawmakers approve world’s first comprehensive framework for crypto regulation (CNBC)
• US Treasury’s Cash Pile Jumps $108 Billion on Tax Day (Bloomberg)
• Fed’s Logan Says Inflation Too High, Outlines Measures to Watch (Bloomberg)
• Fed Officials Back Another Hike While Watching Banking Fallout (Bloomberg)