Why Would Amazon Release Yet Another iPad Rival?

As rumors circulate that Amazon is getting ready to release a tablet computer later this year, it's tempting to wonder: why bother?

First off, Amazon will be going up against Apple, which has formidable expertise in developing, selling, and, above all, marketing high-end consumer electronics. Forrester predicts that the iPad will continue to dominate the already crowded tablet market throughout 2011, with over 80 percent of U.S. sales.

The rest of the tablet market is largely made up of devices running Google's Android operating system. As Amazon is widely thought to be working on a device that also uses Android, this could make it tricky to distinguish its product from these other iPad wannabes. Besides, Amazon already offers a successful Kindle app for the iPad, and for Android. So why risk so much effort by entering the highly competitive tablet market at all?

According to some experts, a full tablet computer could prove vital as the material Amazon sells becomes increasingly digitized and delivered online.

"Why wouldn't they?" says Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of monitor and tablet research at IHS iSuppli. "Having a piece of hardware that can carry their content is essential."

With a library of not only eBooks but also video, audio, and software (Amazon already has an app store for Android), the e-commerce giant would be remiss to neglect the tablet industry, Alexander says.

That Amazon library gives it a leg up on most other tablet makers hoping to take on Apple. Amazon also has a strong, long-standing connection with online shoppers, which gives the company a slick way to sell both the device and associated content. The ongoing success of the Kindle has also given Amazon valuable experience in developing a content-centric device. And with a successful and visible brand in the Kindle, consumers may be more motivated to give the newcomer tablet a try.

Amazon Prime?a $79-a-year subscription service that gives members free shipping and unlimited access to a large digital video library?may attract buyers to the company's tablet as well. "I think [Prime] could play a very big part in their decision," says Alexander.

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iSuppli: ARM to power a quarter of new notebooks by 2015

ARM is best known for its power-sipping smartphone and tablet processors, but according to iSuppli, the chipmaker will soon elbow its way into the laptop market. With the next version of Microsoft's operating system -- Windows 8 -- expected to support ARM's microprocessor architecture, iSuppli believes the company will quickly seize a respectable portion of the laptop market.

Windows 8 is expected to launch next year, during a time when ARM will represent approximately 3% of the worldwide notebook market. By 2015, that figure will mushroom to 22.9% as ARM-powered notebook shipments climb from 7.6 million in 2012 to 74 million. In that same timeframe, ARM CEO Tudor Brown believes his company's chips will account for 40% of the netbook market.

Unsurprisingly, ARM will focus on low-powered, value-oriented notebooks, contending directly with AMD's E-series Fusion APUs as well as Intel's Celeron M and Atom processors. According to DigiTimes, industry titans like Acer, Asus, Samsung and Toshiba are already developing ARM-based Android notebooks for the end of 2011 along with Windows 8 models for 2012.

Unlike the unsuccessful ARM and Android-powered smartbooks (the gimped amalgamation of netbooks and smartphones), the incoming machines will be faster and more functional than before. It's believed that smartbooks flopped because consumers expected them to offer the functionality of a Wintel machine, but their weak processor and diluted OS simply couldn't fit the bill.

"ARM is well-suited for value notebooks, where performance isn't a key criterion for buyers," said iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins. "Value notebook buyers are looking for basic systems that balance an affordable price with reasonable performance. ARM processors deliver acceptable performance at a very low cost, along with unrivaled power efficiency."

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44757-isuppli-arm-to-power-a-quarter-of-new-notebooks-by-2015.html

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Driving Drug Discovery with Computational Chemistry

Most pharmaceutical companies use software to model chemical interactions, with the hope of speeding up the drug development process.  But it's typically a small component of a complex array of approaches. Nimbus Discovery, a startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is using computational chemistry to drive the entire process.

The company emerged from a partnership with Schrödinger, a maker of computational drug discovery software, and venture capital firm Atlas Venture. Nimbus will use Schrödinger's software, computing power, and modeling experts to develop drugs for disease-linked proteins that have historically been difficult to target.

If successful, this computationally driven approach could make drug development faster and cheaper by making much of the trial and error process virtual.  Nimbus recently raised $24 million in venture funding. Bill Gates was one of the investors.

Schrödinger's software, which is used by many pharmaceutical companies, models the various chemical forces that drive a candidate drug molecule to bind to a specific spot on the target protein. That allows drug developers to predict how well various candidate molecules bind to targets of interest. While this approach has been in use for about two decades, it has yet to truly transform the drug-discovery process.  

Nimbus researchers think that part of the reason is that most tools fail to incorporate the thermodynamics of the resident water molecules in the protein's binding site. "The need for improved water models is a widely acknowledged yet seldom-addressed limitation of current methods," says Christopher Snow, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech who is not involved with the company. It's difficult to model the energy of water molecules.

WaterMap, a new tool from Schrödinger that predicts how water will affect the binding reaction, could overcome that barrier. "We think we can use our technology to transform the way drug development is done," says Ramy Farid, president of Schrödinger and cofounder of Nimbus. Researchers have used WaterMap to explain the success or failure of some molecules, as well as to develop new candidate molecules. "It led in a number of cases to rapid development of drug candidates that were of higher quality than what appeared to be otherwise possible," says Farid.

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Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Motherboard: 20GB SSD On-Board

To the dismay of some early adopters, Intel updated its Cougar Point chipset lineup only four months after Sandy Bridge's January launch. Debuting at CES, the company's second-generation Core series LGA1155 processors were initially accompanied by consumer two chipsets, the H67 and P67.

Each platform presents a unique value perspective: the cheaper H67 has access to Sandy Bridge's built-in graphics, while the pricier P67 supports Intel's unlocked "K" series enthusiast processors with advanced overclocking options.

Unfortunately, neither chipset offers both features and that forced many consumers into a tight spot. Some users simply don't require a dedicated graphics card, but they might still want to milk a little extra performance out of their processor and memory. That's precisely where the Z68 steps in.

Released in May, the Z68 serves as Intel's enthusiast-level LGA1155 platform. In addition to combining the functionality of its H67 and P67 chipsets, the Z68 offers some impressive new features, including Intel's Smart Response Technology.

Smart Response Technology (SRT) is a hybrid storage solution that effectively marries the zero access time of a speedy flash drive with the massive storage capacity of an inexpensive hard drive. In doing so, users can expect to pay a modest price premium for significant speed gains.

When we first tested SRT in our Asrock Z68 Extreme 4 review last month, the results were impressive, even with a relatively cheap Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB hard drive. Although we didn't witness massive gains across the board, SRT proved to be an efficient hybrid system.

We've seen many impressive Z68 boards since then, but none are more intriguing than what we have today: the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD. Gigabyte's latest Z68 motherboard takes Intel's SRT one step further by including it on-board.

Right out of the box, the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD features an Intel SSD 311 20GB attached via an mSATA connector. Many have complained that the Intel 20GB SLC SSD is too expensive, but we feel $240 for this motherboard/SSD combo is reasonable. How reasonable, you ask? That's precisely what we intend determine.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/415-gigabyte-z68xp-ud3-issd/

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Driving Drug Discovery with Computational Chemistry

Most pharmaceutical companies use software to model chemical interactions, with the hope of speeding up the drug development process.  But it's typically a small component of a complex array of approaches. Nimbus Discovery, a startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is using computational chemistry to drive the entire process.

The company emerged from a partnership with Schrödinger, a maker of computational drug discovery software, and venture capital firm Atlas Venture. Nimbus will use Schrödinger's software, computing power, and modeling experts to develop drugs for disease-linked proteins that have historically been difficult to target.

If successful, this computationally driven approach could make drug development faster and cheaper by making much of the trial and error process virtual.  Nimbus recently raised $24 million in venture funding. Bill Gates was one of the investors.

Schrödinger's software, which is used by many pharmaceutical companies, models the various chemical forces that drive a candidate drug molecule to bind to a specific spot on the target protein. That allows drug developers to predict how well various candidate molecules bind to targets of interest. While this approach has been in use for about two decades, it has yet to truly transform the drug-discovery process.  

Nimbus researchers think that part of the reason is that most tools fail to incorporate the thermodynamics of the resident water molecules in the protein's binding site. "The need for improved water models is a widely acknowledged yet seldom-addressed limitation of current methods," says Christopher Snow, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech who is not involved with the company. It's difficult to model the energy of water molecules.

WaterMap, a new tool from Schrödinger that predicts how water will affect the binding reaction, could overcome that barrier. "We think we can use our technology to transform the way drug development is done," says Ramy Farid, president of Schrödinger and cofounder of Nimbus. Researchers have used WaterMap to explain the success or failure of some molecules, as well as to develop new candidate molecules. "It led in a number of cases to rapid development of drug candidates that were of higher quality than what appeared to be otherwise possible," says Farid.

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Google reportedly plans to verify Google profiles in Hollywood push

Google is reportedly drawing up a ?celebrity acquisition plan? to help publicise its new Google+ social network to become well-known by prominent actors, musicians and other public figures, CNN has revealed.

CNN learned of Google?s plans for its three-week-old social network via a number of emails from Google, which highlights a new system to verify the identity of a public figure when they sign up for the service.

The system would operate similarly to the way Twitter authenticates celebrities on its service, with Google reported to be pondering the inclusion of a button that would be present on legitimate profiles. This would match Twitter?s ?Verified? icon, which Twitter began using to verify profiles but started to relax use of the feature as of late.

Brett Schulte, a Hollywood consultant and organizer of social-media gatherings called Tweet House, believes Google will ask public figures to fax over copies of their driving license to the company.

Google however, declined to comment, simply stating:

?We aren?t yet sharing any details on future plans around Google+. We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time.?

Google+ has already seen a number of tech-savvy celebrities join the social network, with many gaining a presence on the service via their public relations teams. The search giant has already amassed 10 million users of its service and will hope a large number of high-profile endorsements will result in a more registrations and increased interaction on Google+.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/19/google-reportedly-plans-to-verify-google-profiles-in-hollywood-push/

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Why Would Amazon Release Yet Another iPad Rival?

As rumors circulate that Amazon is getting ready to release a tablet computer later this year, it's tempting to wonder: why bother?

First off, Amazon will be going up against Apple, which has formidable expertise in developing, selling, and, above all, marketing high-end consumer electronics. Forrester predicts that the iPad will continue to dominate the already crowded tablet market throughout 2011, with over 80 percent of U.S. sales.

The rest of the tablet market is largely made up of devices running Google's Android operating system. As Amazon is widely thought to be working on a device that also uses Android, this could make it tricky to distinguish its product from these other iPad wannabes. Besides, Amazon already offers a successful Kindle app for the iPad, and for Android. So why risk so much effort by entering the highly competitive tablet market at all?

According to some experts, a full tablet computer could prove vital as the material Amazon sells becomes increasingly digitized and delivered online.

"Why wouldn't they?" says Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of monitor and tablet research at IHS iSuppli. "Having a piece of hardware that can carry their content is essential."

With a library of not only eBooks but also video, audio, and software (Amazon already has an app store for Android), the e-commerce giant would be remiss to neglect the tablet industry, Alexander says.

That Amazon library gives it a leg up on most other tablet makers hoping to take on Apple. Amazon also has a strong, long-standing connection with online shoppers, which gives the company a slick way to sell both the device and associated content. The ongoing success of the Kindle has also given Amazon valuable experience in developing a content-centric device. And with a successful and visible brand in the Kindle, consumers may be more motivated to give the newcomer tablet a try.

Amazon Prime?a $79-a-year subscription service that gives members free shipping and unlimited access to a large digital video library?may attract buyers to the company's tablet as well. "I think [Prime] could play a very big part in their decision," says Alexander.

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Dodd-Frank Under Fire a Year Later

WASHINGTON ? In the year since the passage of a sweeping overhaul of the nation?s financial regulatory system after the financial crisis, the stock market is up, banking profits have grown and institutions that invest on behalf of average Americans are praising the tougher stance in Washington.

Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, expressed the general good feeling among Obama administration officials on Monday, saying that the financial system was ?on more solid ground? than at any time since before the crisis in 2008.

But there remain signs that the tightened regulatory measures could still be undone, creating uncertainty about whether the actions that have helped to stabilize Wall Street will be in place when the next crisis hits.

Two dozen bills in Congress seek to dismantle parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which President Obama signed a year ago Thursday. Business groups have argued that too many new regulations could snuff out the start of an economic recovery.

President Obama says he believes the battle is far from over.

?The financial crisis and the recession were not the result of normal economic cycles or just a run of bad luck,? the president said Monday as he nominated a new director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank Act. ?There were abuses and there was a lack of smart regulations.  So we?re not just going to shrug our shoulders and hope it doesn?t happen again.?

Mr. Obama?s pick for the new bureau is Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general.

It is not yet clear, however, that the forces fighting to preserve all the elements of Dodd-Frank will, in fact, win out. It is also not clear that Mr. Cordray will be confirmed by the Senate.

Senate Republicans are refusing to consider nominations for posts at several financial regulatory agencies. Lawmakers have taken aim at agencies for budget cuts. Administration officials say that banking and business lobbyists have spent more than $50 million this year to try to change the law, most of which has still not taken effect because regulators have not finished drawing up the new rules.

The forces arrayed against Mr. Obama are aptly demonstrated by his nomination of Mr. Cordray to head the consumer bureau. Mr. Cordray was hired as the bureau?s director of enforcement several months ago by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert whom Mr. Obama credited with giving him the idea for the agency.

While Ms. Warren has been working since September to prepare the agency for its July 21 opening, Republicans made clear that they did not want her appointed to a permanent position. A group of 44 Republican senators vowed they would not let any nomination come to a floor vote unless significant changes were made in the structure, power and scope of the consumer agency.

Bank lobbyists have called for structural changes, too, but they have also bemoaned the lack of a director for the agency. ?The absence of a confirmed director and the enormous powers of this new agency have created a time of great uncertainty for the retail banking industry,? the Consumer Bankers Association, which represents retail banks, said Monday.

Uncertainty has long been the watchword for opponents of Dodd-Frank. When Mr. Obama signed the act last year, the United States Chamber of Commerce said it was ?a broad, sweeping bill? that ?epitomizes a law with unintended consequences that creates more uncertainty for American businesses.?

Since then, the unemployment rate has remained high. But there are some other indications that investors, at least, have not been bothered by uncertainty or regulation. The Dow Jones industrial average is up more than 20 percent from a year ago, even after declining in the last few days. Indexes of small-company stocks are up more than 30 percent from last year at this time, and the market for initial public stock offerings, particularly for technology stocks, has been strong.

The Council of Institutional Investors, a lobbying group that represents pension and employee benefit funds, endowments and foundations, said Monday that the Dodd-Frank Act was ?a clear win for investors.?

?Excessive risk by Wall Street fueled the market meltdown that wiped out millions of U.S. jobs and billions in retirement savings,? Ann Yerger, the council?s executive director, said in a statement. ?The Dodd-Frank Act, if implemented as intended, will be a critical bulwark against such massive abuse of investors.?

David Hirschmann, a senior vice president at the Chamber of Commerce, said while investors might be sanguine about the long-term outlook, ?uncertainty among companies about the rules of the road is keeping a lot of capital on the sidelines.?

Several crucial financial issues remain to be resolved, including what is known as the Volcker Rule, a ban on banks trading for their own accounts. Rules governing the trading and processing of derivatives, the complex financial instruments that contributed to the difficulties of several banking and insurance companies, have yet to be completed.

On Monday, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes the top banking and financial regulators, approved one of a series of rules on how to determine whether financial institutions like stock markets and clearinghouses were ?systemically important? to the financial system and subject to a higher level of oversight.

Bankers say they remain worried about whether tightened standards in this country will put them at a disadvantage as they try to expand overseas. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Monday that he shared a similar concern. ?Unless we have international consistency, we will not have a level playing field, we?ll have opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and the entire reform process will not be effective.?

For Mr. Obama, continued opposition to changes in the law is a top priority, he said. ?There is an army of lobbyists and lawyers right now working to water down the protections and the reforms that we passed.? He continued: ?They?ve got allies in Congress who are trying to undo the progress that we?ve made.  We?re not going to let that happen.?

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Dodd-Frank Under Fire a Year Later

WASHINGTON ? In the year since the passage of a sweeping overhaul of the nation?s financial regulatory system after the financial crisis, the stock market is up, banking profits have grown and institutions that invest on behalf of average Americans are praising the tougher stance in Washington.

Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, expressed the general good feeling among Obama administration officials on Monday, saying that the financial system was ?on more solid ground? than at any time since before the crisis in 2008.

But there remain signs that the tightened regulatory measures could still be undone, creating uncertainty about whether the actions that have helped to stabilize Wall Street will be in place when the next crisis hits.

Two dozen bills in Congress seek to dismantle parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which President Obama signed a year ago Thursday. Business groups have argued that too many new regulations could snuff out the start of an economic recovery.

President Obama says he believes the battle is far from over.

?The financial crisis and the recession were not the result of normal economic cycles or just a run of bad luck,? the president said Monday as he nominated a new director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank Act. ?There were abuses and there was a lack of smart regulations.  So we?re not just going to shrug our shoulders and hope it doesn?t happen again.?

Mr. Obama?s pick for the new bureau is Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general.

It is not yet clear, however, that the forces fighting to preserve all the elements of Dodd-Frank will, in fact, win out. It is also not clear that Mr. Cordray will be confirmed by the Senate.

Senate Republicans are refusing to consider nominations for posts at several financial regulatory agencies. Lawmakers have taken aim at agencies for budget cuts. Administration officials say that banking and business lobbyists have spent more than $50 million this year to try to change the law, most of which has still not taken effect because regulators have not finished drawing up the new rules.

The forces arrayed against Mr. Obama are aptly demonstrated by his nomination of Mr. Cordray to head the consumer bureau. Mr. Cordray was hired as the bureau?s director of enforcement several months ago by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert whom Mr. Obama credited with giving him the idea for the agency.

While Ms. Warren has been working since September to prepare the agency for its July 21 opening, Republicans made clear that they did not want her appointed to a permanent position. A group of 44 Republican senators vowed they would not let any nomination come to a floor vote unless significant changes were made in the structure, power and scope of the consumer agency.

Bank lobbyists have called for structural changes, too, but they have also bemoaned the lack of a director for the agency. ?The absence of a confirmed director and the enormous powers of this new agency have created a time of great uncertainty for the retail banking industry,? the Consumer Bankers Association, which represents retail banks, said Monday.

Uncertainty has long been the watchword for opponents of Dodd-Frank. When Mr. Obama signed the act last year, the United States Chamber of Commerce said it was ?a broad, sweeping bill? that ?epitomizes a law with unintended consequences that creates more uncertainty for American businesses.?

Since then, the unemployment rate has remained high. But there are some other indications that investors, at least, have not been bothered by uncertainty or regulation. The Dow Jones industrial average is up more than 20 percent from a year ago, even after declining in the last few days. Indexes of small-company stocks are up more than 30 percent from last year at this time, and the market for initial public stock offerings, particularly for technology stocks, has been strong.

The Council of Institutional Investors, a lobbying group that represents pension and employee benefit funds, endowments and foundations, said Monday that the Dodd-Frank Act was ?a clear win for investors.?

?Excessive risk by Wall Street fueled the market meltdown that wiped out millions of U.S. jobs and billions in retirement savings,? Ann Yerger, the council?s executive director, said in a statement. ?The Dodd-Frank Act, if implemented as intended, will be a critical bulwark against such massive abuse of investors.?

David Hirschmann, a senior vice president at the Chamber of Commerce, said while investors might be sanguine about the long-term outlook, ?uncertainty among companies about the rules of the road is keeping a lot of capital on the sidelines.?

Several crucial financial issues remain to be resolved, including what is known as the Volcker Rule, a ban on banks trading for their own accounts. Rules governing the trading and processing of derivatives, the complex financial instruments that contributed to the difficulties of several banking and insurance companies, have yet to be completed.

On Monday, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes the top banking and financial regulators, approved one of a series of rules on how to determine whether financial institutions like stock markets and clearinghouses were ?systemically important? to the financial system and subject to a higher level of oversight.

Bankers say they remain worried about whether tightened standards in this country will put them at a disadvantage as they try to expand overseas. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Monday that he shared a similar concern. ?Unless we have international consistency, we will not have a level playing field, we?ll have opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and the entire reform process will not be effective.?

For Mr. Obama, continued opposition to changes in the law is a top priority, he said. ?There is an army of lobbyists and lawyers right now working to water down the protections and the reforms that we passed.? He continued: ?They?ve got allies in Congress who are trying to undo the progress that we?ve made.  We?re not going to let that happen.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=77d1df648ca69685bbfd80a4957ed860

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Dodd-Frank Under Fire a Year Later

WASHINGTON ? In the year since the passage of a sweeping overhaul of the nation?s financial regulatory system after the financial crisis, the stock market is up, banking profits have grown and institutions that invest on behalf of average Americans are praising the tougher stance in Washington.

Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, expressed the general good feeling among Obama administration officials on Monday, saying that the financial system was ?on more solid ground? than at any time since before the crisis in 2008.

But there remain signs that the tightened regulatory measures could still be undone, creating uncertainty about whether the actions that have helped to stabilize Wall Street will be in place when the next crisis hits.

Two dozen bills in Congress seek to dismantle parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which President Obama signed a year ago Thursday. Business groups have argued that too many new regulations could snuff out the start of an economic recovery.

President Obama says he believes the battle is far from over.

?The financial crisis and the recession were not the result of normal economic cycles or just a run of bad luck,? the president said Monday as he nominated a new director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank Act. ?There were abuses and there was a lack of smart regulations.  So we?re not just going to shrug our shoulders and hope it doesn?t happen again.?

Mr. Obama?s pick for the new bureau is Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general.

It is not yet clear, however, that the forces fighting to preserve all the elements of Dodd-Frank will, in fact, win out. It is also not clear that Mr. Cordray will be confirmed by the Senate.

Senate Republicans are refusing to consider nominations for posts at several financial regulatory agencies. Lawmakers have taken aim at agencies for budget cuts. Administration officials say that banking and business lobbyists have spent more than $50 million this year to try to change the law, most of which has still not taken effect because regulators have not finished drawing up the new rules.

The forces arrayed against Mr. Obama are aptly demonstrated by his nomination of Mr. Cordray to head the consumer bureau. Mr. Cordray was hired as the bureau?s director of enforcement several months ago by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert whom Mr. Obama credited with giving him the idea for the agency.

While Ms. Warren has been working since September to prepare the agency for its July 21 opening, Republicans made clear that they did not want her appointed to a permanent position. A group of 44 Republican senators vowed they would not let any nomination come to a floor vote unless significant changes were made in the structure, power and scope of the consumer agency.

Bank lobbyists have called for structural changes, too, but they have also bemoaned the lack of a director for the agency. ?The absence of a confirmed director and the enormous powers of this new agency have created a time of great uncertainty for the retail banking industry,? the Consumer Bankers Association, which represents retail banks, said Monday.

Uncertainty has long been the watchword for opponents of Dodd-Frank. When Mr. Obama signed the act last year, the United States Chamber of Commerce said it was ?a broad, sweeping bill? that ?epitomizes a law with unintended consequences that creates more uncertainty for American businesses.?

Since then, the unemployment rate has remained high. But there are some other indications that investors, at least, have not been bothered by uncertainty or regulation. The Dow Jones industrial average is up more than 20 percent from a year ago, even after declining in the last few days. Indexes of small-company stocks are up more than 30 percent from last year at this time, and the market for initial public stock offerings, particularly for technology stocks, has been strong.

The Council of Institutional Investors, a lobbying group that represents pension and employee benefit funds, endowments and foundations, said Monday that the Dodd-Frank Act was ?a clear win for investors.?

?Excessive risk by Wall Street fueled the market meltdown that wiped out millions of U.S. jobs and billions in retirement savings,? Ann Yerger, the council?s executive director, said in a statement. ?The Dodd-Frank Act, if implemented as intended, will be a critical bulwark against such massive abuse of investors.?

David Hirschmann, a senior vice president at the Chamber of Commerce, said while investors might be sanguine about the long-term outlook, ?uncertainty among companies about the rules of the road is keeping a lot of capital on the sidelines.?

Several crucial financial issues remain to be resolved, including what is known as the Volcker Rule, a ban on banks trading for their own accounts. Rules governing the trading and processing of derivatives, the complex financial instruments that contributed to the difficulties of several banking and insurance companies, have yet to be completed.

On Monday, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes the top banking and financial regulators, approved one of a series of rules on how to determine whether financial institutions like stock markets and clearinghouses were ?systemically important? to the financial system and subject to a higher level of oversight.

Bankers say they remain worried about whether tightened standards in this country will put them at a disadvantage as they try to expand overseas. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Monday that he shared a similar concern. ?Unless we have international consistency, we will not have a level playing field, we?ll have opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and the entire reform process will not be effective.?

For Mr. Obama, continued opposition to changes in the law is a top priority, he said. ?There is an army of lobbyists and lawyers right now working to water down the protections and the reforms that we passed.? He continued: ?They?ve got allies in Congress who are trying to undo the progress that we?ve made.  We?re not going to let that happen.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=77d1df648ca69685bbfd80a4957ed860

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