The New York Times has a nice piece on the real world effects of the protectionist language in the new stimulus bill: “Absent precise regulations, which have yet to be issued, big banks are being forced to re-examine the hundreds of students that many of them would normally add to their training classes at the end of the academic year.” In effect, at a time when US financial institutions are struggling to compete in a global market, they find themselves with another hurdle to overcome.