U.S. Senate says yes to Keystone, no to banks

The Keystone XL pipeline got a shot in the arm over the weekend when the U.S. Senate passed its first budget in four years, reports the Financial Times.

The Senate voted 62-37 in favour of the project, though it’s not in the clear just yet.

The report notes President Obama “must decide whether to approve construction but the Senate vote leaves him no political cover to refuse it. ‘Approving the Keystone Pipeline is the perfect opportunity to put Americans to work right now,’ said Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana.”

The article also highlights how the largely symbolic budget shows lawmakers’ changing attitudes towards the big banks.

“Too-big-to-fail banks received a scare from a 99-0 vote on an amendment aimed at ending any funding advantage for banks with assets of more than $500bn because of a perception that the government would always rescue them in order to stabilise the financial system,” the report says.

Read more here.

Also read:

Banks are never too big to fail: IIF

Brits cool on ‘too big to fail’

Were Canada’s banks bailed out?

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.