by Laura Conaway

Morning, y'all. We read the news today:

The European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (winner for "name of the day") wants the G20 nations — meeting in Pittsburgh this week — to force banks to build up reserves to stave off another financial crisis. (Bonus: Simon Johnson wins "headline of the day" for "You Cannot Be Serious: US Strategy for the G20.")

If you think you're mad about the state of big banking in America, meet Rep. Edolphus Towns. The New York lawmaker, a Democrat, is demanding answers about what Bank of America knew about losses at Merrill Lynch as it bought the investment firm last year.

Pushing his own plan for regulatory reform, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is digging in for a fight with fellow Dems Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and President Barack Obama. Dodd wants to combine the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency into one super-regulator, an idea at odds with proposals by the Obama administration and Frank.

Inflation watchers, behold the slack in the American economy. Ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting this week, the Wall Street Journal visits Bend, Ore., where 29 percent of the homes are vacant (gulp!) and a whole lot of downtown is for rent. Until the economy expands enough to take up that kind of slack (gulp!), the Fed's not likely to raise the benchmark interest rate from its record low of zero to 0.25 percent.

Whole Foods is considering banning personal checks at a few stores out West because they cost too much money to handle and so few people use them. Anyone remember the last time they wrote a check at the store?