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March 30, 2023

Better Markets Month in Review Newsletter – March 2023

View the newsletter online here.

Hi Friend,

Crazy month. It began with the financial industry’s Republican allies on the Senate Banking Committee pushing Federal Reserve Chair Powell to stop Vice Chair for Supervision Barr from properly regulating banks (which we rebutted here) and ended with high-profile Congressional hearings into the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which happened because banks weren’t properly regulated (as we detailed here).

Yes, the directors and executives of SVB were, at best, grossly deficient, but, no shock, bankers prioritize profits and often engage in high risk, dangerous, reckless, and sometimes illegal conduct (after all, that’s what generates the biggest pay packages!). That’s why we have banking regulators like the Federal Reserve: to make sure banks/bankers don’t put profits above safety, soundness, and financial stability.  Unfortunately, during the Trump administration the financial industry was significantly unleashed, unsupervised, and unpoliced.  SVB’s collapse and the ongoing banking crisis was the inevitable and predicable result of Trump’s regulators deregulating and gutting supervision – it was also entirely avoidable, all as we spelled out in our latest fact sheet. I hope you take a few minutes to read it.

For Better Markets, the SVB failure is a galvanizing moment that shows the importance of our work and the need to do even more. As our Fact Sheet shows, for years we warned of the dangers of deregulation of banks like SVB, spelled out the dangers of those actions, and detailed how to change all that.  In just the last several months, we issued a report on how the Fed’s post-2008 policies have created enormous risks in the system (as widely praised here and here).  Unfortunately, those risks have now materialized and contributed to SVB’s failure. We have been very active this month in the media raising and discussing all these issues:

These fast moving and incredibly consequential issues will continue to command our attention.  If you want to keep up in real time, our website (www.bettermarkets.org) is a great resource and you should also follow us on Twitter @BetterMarkets and @DennisKelleher for our latest work and thoughts.

Our generous supporters have—once again—allowed us to speak the truthabout the growing dangers to our financial system, despite efforts by financial firms, their lobbyists, and many powerful allies to silence us and prevent us from promoting the public interest over their special interests. Together in this critical moment we will continue to demand accountability from whose who jeopardize our financial system and the well-being of Main Street families, small businesses, and community banks.

Best,

Dennis

Dennis Kelleher
Co-founder, President, and CEO of Better Markets

 

Better Markets in the News

“Crises don’t just happen — they’re not like the Immaculate Conception.”
Dennis Kelleher in The New York Times

Activities at the Regulatory Agencies

 

Legal Update                                                                          Hill Update

 

In Case You Missed It

 

What We’re Reading

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