The Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee works to identify and analyze developing trends and ongoing events that promise to affect the efficiency and safe operation of sectors of the financial services industry; explore the spectrum of short- and long-term implications of emerging problems and policy changes; help develop private, regulatory and legislative responses to such problems that promote efficiency and safety and further the public interest; and to assess and respond to proposed and actual public policy initiatives with respect to the impact on the public interest.

Pete Blaber | Backgrounder | Maps

Tommy Franks | Backgrounder | Maps

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Zia Lodin | Backgrounder | Maps

Buzz...

While residents of Kurram may enjoy the short-term benefits of the operation's tactical successes, its shortcomings expose the larger war effort against militants and militancy in the FATA, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to some dangerous long-term consequences.

How important were CIA interrogations in the killing of bin Laden? In light of recent events, should the Obama administration continue its current policy of killing rather than capturing and interrogating terrorists?

Austerity measures in Europe have been the topic of a heated and mostly confused debate in the economic world. During the May summit of the leading industrial nations at Camp David, German chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders pushed for continued European austerity. Keynesian critics argue that these policies destroy economic growth.

Iran's Qods Force funds, trains, and arms terrorist groups; conducts intelligence operations; engages in covert diplomatic efforts; and carries out economic activities under the mission of exporting the Islamic Revolution and cultivating proxies.

The U.S. failure to support the uprisings that President Bush himself had called for remains a source of suspicion and resentment to this day, particularly among Iraq's Shias who were massacred by the thousands by Saddam while the US stood by.