Wall Street and crypto are awash in chatter about the industry’s latest financial buzzword, tokenization. In essence, tokenization creates a digital version of other assets — mostly company stock but also potentially real estate or artworks.
Vanguard settled a lawsuit Texas and ten other red states brought alleging the largest asset managers in the world undermined the coal industry in violation of antitrust laws. Even though many legal experts have criticized these types of arguments, Vanguard caved, agreeing to a $29.5 million payment and terms that signal it won’t give corporate insiders like boards and executives any trouble. BlackRock and State Street are still fighting the lawsuit.
Even more stories broke this week that troubles in the private credit market are mounting. The increasing instability in these largely unregulated and opaque non-bank loans is an ominous sign that the hidden risks are starting to spiral.
Rising housing costs are a critical driver of the current affordability crisis, and they cannot be addressed without genuinely confronting the role of private equity and big investors buying up the nation’s housing stock.
There is trouble brewing in opaque private markets. That’s why Wall Street firms are pushing full steam ahead to pull working families into these high-risk, high-fee investments. The administration, Congress, and private equity industry pretend that they are democratizing investing by letting retirement savers and mom and pop investors into the exciting world of private markets. The reality is that Wall Street is looking to dump their struggling private equity and private credit investments onto people who should not face their risks, costs, and opacity. A recent blow-up at a private credit company should raise alarms.
A little over a year since the Trump administration came to power, Congress should hold Chairman Atkins to account for the role the SEC is playing to consolidate the power of the oligarchy through dramatic market-moving changes — all of which the agency has made through quick tweaks that avoid procedures that would have given stakeholders a chance to weigh in and check this power grab.
What does the SEC have to do with the oligarchy? Unfortunately, quite a lot.