“Having a Fed vice chair for supervision is crucial to a progressive agenda,” said Renita Marcellin, a senior banking policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, which has called for a halt on all bank mergers, more rules for cryptocurrency firms and a crackdown on the private equity industry. “There’s a lot more to do than simply repairing the damage caused by Trump regulators.”
“The administration settled on a smart person with a background in the banking industry and in government as well as path-breaking scholarship on financial regulation,” said Carter Dougherty, a spokesperson for Americans for Financial Reform. “In less polarized times, somebody appointed by a Democratic president who worked for a previous Republican administration and for a Wall Street firm would be the kind of candidate everyone can agree on. But we’re at a moment where a candidate acceptable to Wall Street is a candidate that does the bidding of Wall Street. And that’s not acceptable to the public interest.”
“Whether it is preserving favored tax loopholes or forestalling more comprehensive reform, private fund executives spend on politics for the purpose of getting richer at the expense of everyone else,” Ricardo Valadez, private equity campaign manager at AFR, said.
“I would say that there is a history of dumping on the postal service, and Congress certainly hasn’t helped the situation over the years,” said Porter McConnell, campaign director of Take on Wall Street, co-founder of the Save the Post Office coalition. “That said, stepping into this history in Louis DeJoy, uniquely ill-suited to the moment.”
“There is no doubt [SEC Chair Gensler] wants to make it very clear that the sheriff is back in town,” says Andrew Park, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, an investor advocacy group that earlier this year co-authored a letter to the House Financial Services Committee suggesting several SPAC reforms. At least one
Reappointing Mr. Powell “would be disappointing” for those who care about Mr. Biden’s agenda to address financial regulation, climate change and racial wealth gaps, said Erik Gerding, a senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform, a nonprofit that argues for tougher financial regulation. “Having Jerome Powell continue would just mean one less vote for sustained and healthy regulation of the banking system.”