Pamela Gibbs Selected as SEC OMWI Director

"The Securities and Exchange Commission..announced that Pamela A. Gibbs has been named as the inaugural Director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, which oversees diversity in the agency's employment, management, and business activities.

Ms. Gibbs comes to the SEC from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she has served since October 2009 as the Director of its Office of Diversity and Inclusion. In that role, Ms. Gibbs was the principal advisor to the CFTC Chairman on equal employment and diversity matters, and oversaw outreach and recruitment of minority and women's groups. She also worked with the agency's Office of General Counsel and Office of Human Resources to ensure fairness and consistency in the agency's personnel policies and practices.

Prior to the CFTC, Ms. Gibbs.. started in 1991 as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division (of the Department of Labor). She later was Acting Deputy Director for Program Operation in the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, and was Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Unit in the Employment Standards Administration from April 2006 to October 2009."

The CFTC has one of the weakest Offices of Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Government and is not included under OMWI. It should also be noted that the Department of Labor dropped the ball on many significant discrimination cases over the years. Finally, it is well and widely known that EEOC has been ineffective since the days of Clarence Thomas.

All in all, a choice that bears watching.

New Law Helps Minority and Women Contractors Land Big Deals

New Law Helps Minority and Women Contractors Land Big Deals.

President Obama signs bill that gives our financial services firms a seat at the table. But is it enough?

See: http://www.blackenterprise.com/2011/07/06/new-law-helps-minority-and-women-contractors-land-big-deals/

Section 342 Forecast Confirmed. Probability of repeal placed at 25%.

We predicted during our webinar: The Election and Section 342, that "influential and wealthy tea party contributors will push repeal of financial reform effort first." On January 5th, Tea Party Caucus Founder U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann introduced a bill to repeal the Dodd-Frank Law:

"H.R.87 Latest Title: To repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Sponsor: Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] (introduced 1/5/2011). Cosponsors (4)

Latest Major Action: 1/5/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, the Judiciary, the Budget, Oversight and Government Reform, Ways and Means, and Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned."

That the Dodd/Frank repeal bill has been introduced BEFORE the Health Care repeal bill is indicative of Tea Party's true (revealed) priorities. As we said in our webinar, despite vitriolic rhetoric concerning health care, the wealthy backers of the tea party movement are primarily focused on financial issues. They are controlling the Tea Party's agenda and movements.

We now estimate the probability of full Dodd-Frank repeal at 25% (0.25). Specific estimates of the probability of repeal are detailed in the Webinar.