Nearly a decade after the crisis broke, we need the public interest, not Wall Street’s narrow pursuit of maximum benefits for a tiny few to guide financial policy. But Wall Street’s money is an enormously powerful force pushing the other way.
Ten Years after the 2008 Financial Crisis, Where Do We Stand? A conference with Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and regulators who helped respond.
This proposal is no minor set of technical tweaks to the Volcker Rule, but an attempt to unravel fundamental elements of the response to the 2008 financial crisis, when banks financed their gambling with taxpayer-insured deposits. If implemented, these proposals could turn the Volcker Rule into a dead letter, a regulation that would not meaningfully restrict trading activities.
The need for strong public interest nominees is even greater today. This Administration has been
filling key regulatory positions with people pursuing Wall Street’s agenda at the public’s expense,
and the revolving door is spinning faster than ever. There is an enormous amount at stake at both
the SEC and FDIC as the financial industry and their friends in the Trump administration work to
undo the progress made in Dodd-Frank and to undermine key investor protection standards.
This legislation ignores the lessons of the financial crisis that cost so many Americans their jobs and homes, and pays no heed to the overwhelming majority of voters who correctly understand the need for tougher, not weaker, oversight of the financial services industry.
Wall Street pumped $719 million into the political process in 2017, a rate that puts it on pace to outstrip the record $2 billion it spent during the 2015-2016 campaign cycle, according to a new report by Americans for Financial Reform.
In the first twelve months of the 2017-18 election cycle, Wall Street banks and financial interests have reported spending $719 million to influence decision-making through campaign contributions and lobbying. That total works out to about $2.0 million a day. The financial sector is by far the largest source of campaign contributions in federal elections, and the third largest spender on lobbying
Statement from Marcus Stanley, policy director, Americans for Financial Reform: “The proposal we heard described today does not come close to measuring up. The standard of conduct the agency has articulated appears ambiguous at best. It doesn’t simply ban the sales quotas and other compensation practices that lead brokers to put their clients into high-fee, lower-yielding investments.”
As the Trump administration rolls back the greater regulatory scrutiny the for-profit college industry has faced during the last several years, it is private equity that stands to benefit the most, posing continuing dangers to students, taxpayers, and the integrity of the federal financial aid system.
Washington, DC – Friday at noon, DC activists will rally to close the egregious carried interest loophole outside private equity firm The Carlyle Group.