Earlier today, Russell Vought, Trump’s acting director, announced plans to begin the withdrawal of 67 measures undertaken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from the past fifteen years, across areas including credit reports, consumer complaints, credit cards, and servicemember rights.
The Senate thankfully blocked plans to fast-track legislation that would have emboldened the crypto conflicts of interest crisis that are emanating from the White House. This toothless legislation posed real risks for consumers and the financial system, but a vote to advance this legislation would have rewarded the President for enriching himself and his family through a crypto business empire.
“Public pension funds are one of the biggest sources of capital for private equity firms,” says Oscar Valdés Viera, who analyzes private equity at Americans for Financial Reform. “Workers indirectly fund private equity’s predatory practices through their pension funds. The private equity billionaires benefit from tax loopholes and giveaways that the rest of us do not get,” he says, pointing out the carried interest tax deduction, which allows private equity managers to get much of their income taxed at the lower long-term capital gains tax rate than the ordinary income tax rate.
The Senate overturned a tiny but critical regulatory change by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that eliminated two relics from over 25 years ago: the automatic approval of bank mergers and the expedited review of bank merger applications. These deeply flawed 1996 regulations rubber-stamped bank mergers and ushered in a merger wave that massively consolidated the banking industry, created too-big-to-fail megabanks, and contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.
The Senate is moving toward legislation to embed cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins into the fabric of the financial system at the very same time that a prominent person – no less than President Trump – is plumbing the depths of corruption and conflicts of interest. The beginning of the solution to the problem of crypto scams and corruption involves stopping this legislation – not fast-tracking it to enactment.
Today, watchdogs raised alarm about a new ~$2.7 billion partnership between Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), Crypto.com and investment industry-related firm Yorkville America Digital to market cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investments to retail investors.
More members of Congress are recognizing that just like oil and water, consumer protection and crypto corruption don’t mix. Trump’s crypto empire has become a source of profits and power that shows blatant disregard for ethics — even as he promotes crypto policies that will enrich him and his crypto allies — which has become impossible to overlook.
“People place a lot of value, besides economic value, on where they live, and a lot of people don’t have the resources to move anyway,” said Alex Martin, policy director at Climate and Finance at Americans for Financial Reform. “People aren’t able to afford the cost increases that are coming right now. And if they can’t do that, just raising rates continuously will not be a holistic solution.”
Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee voted on party lines to strip away consumer and investor protections to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and corporations as part of the budget reconciliation package. The Committee’s legislation included deep cuts to the funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency dedicated to protecting people from financial predation and scams.
Few tax loopholes better exemplify how our rigged economy rewards wealth extraction over real work than the carried interest loophole. The controversial loophole exists to benefit some of the wealthiest people on Wall Street—especially private equity executives—at the expense of workers, communities, and the public.