Financial Reform Newsletter: Dec 6 2018 Senate Republicans Confirm Trump’s Grossly Unqualified, Anti-Consumer Nominee to be the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Contrary to everything he said to voters when he was a candidate running for office, President “Flip Flop” Trump continues to deliver for Wall Street and stomp on the most basic […]
Financial Reform Newsletter November 22, 2018 SEC Proposing Rules That Will Lead to More AIG/CDS Gambling, Blowups & Bailouts AIG had a very lucrative business before the 2008 crash of gambling with unregulated credit default swaps (CDS) without setting aside any margin or capital. Instead, all the profits were put into bonuses for AIG’s executives. […]
CFTC Follows Better Markets On Not Deregulating Dangerous Derivatives The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finalized an $8 billion de minimis swaps trading exception threshold rule that did not include several very significant deregulation provisions in the proposed rule that Better Markets aggressively opposed. This action followed our lengthy comment letter, which detailed how the […]
NEWSLETTER: Oct. 22nd, 2018 FSOC Hangs Up The Out Of Business Sign The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is the only entity in the entire US government that has the critically important duty, authority and mandate to regulate systemically significant nonbanks, commonly thought of as the shadow banking system. The Obama administration FSOC did a […]
NEWSLETTER: Oct. 10th 2018 The SEC Needs to End Its Self-Inflicted Blindness and Implement CAT ASAP The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) would revolutionize the SEC’s capabilities to protect investors, facilitate capital formation and promote fair and orderly capital markets – on which job creators and savers, and indeed all Americans, depend. It is no exaggeration […]
NEWSLETTER: Oct. 5th 2018 The SEC Fails Again by not Meaningfully Punishing Tesla or Musk The SEC’s light-touch to no-touch enforcement just created another way for big shot CEOs to get away with breaking the law by adding “too important to punish” to the already indefensible “too big to jail.” First and most importantly, the SEC […]
FINANCIAL REFORM NEWSLETTER: Sept. 20, 2018 Goldman Sachs Failed 10 Years Ago Today Email Shows Goldman Admitted It Was “Toast”, Only Survived Due to Government Bailouts While many are remembering the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of the worse financial crash since 1929, there is too much spin, self-congratulation and […]
THIS WEEK IN FINANCIAL CRISIS HISTORY: September 7th, 2008 – In an historic and unprecedented move, the U.S. Government places Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into “conservatorship” (meaning the US Government took over control of the two mortgage giants) in an effort to stabilize the housing market. September 11th, 2008 – Lehman Brothers puts itself […]
The SEC Should Not Take Away Investors’ Rights or Force Them into Secret, Biased Proceedings Where They Almost Always Lose If you’re ripped off, should you have a meaningful way to get your money back? If a corporation rips off you and hundreds or thousands of other consumers or investors, should that corporation be able […]
“The Economics Behind the Demise of Democracy,” An Axios Must-Read While many comment on the political, social and cultural upheaval from Trump and Brexit to the rise of authoritarians around the globe, few have recognized the critical role of economics and the 2008 financial crisis in particular. A must-read Axios piece recently did: “Unforced by […]
Ten Years Since the 2008 Crash, Watch the Lively Politico Debate on Where the Next Financial Crisis Lurks — On the 10-year anniversary of the 2008 financial crash, Politico Pro held a very lively discussion at its annualSummit last week. The panelists, featuring Better Markets president and CEO Dennis Kelleher, along with Representative Gwen Moore […]
Trump’s Anti-Consumer Protection Nominee Gets a Senate Hearing; Here’s Why You Should Care Today, Trump’s nominee to be the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had a contentious hearing in the Senate Banking Committee, where she refused to answer even the most basic and straightforward questions. Last November, Better Markets’ President and CEO, […]
A Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh Will Be a Threat to Consumers, Investors and Taxpayers, While Greatly Increasing Financial and Corporate Power and Inequality Most people can readily understand and relate to social issues and individual rights, which have been the focus since President Trump announced his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. […]
Wall Street’s Biggest Banks Are Gambling with Derivatives and Evading Regulation Again, Setting Us Up for Another Financial Crash An all-star financial panel of former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, former FDIC Vice Chair Thomas Hoenig, Former Director of Trading and Markets at the CFTC (now University of Maryland Law Professor) Michael Greenberger, and moderated […]
The Volcker Rule Ban on Wall Street’s Biggest Banks’ Gambling With Taxpayer Money Shouldn’t be Weakened because it is Working to Protect America’s Families, Taxpayers and Financial System The wisdom and effectiveness of the Volcker Rule’s ban on proprietary trading can be seen since it was put into place: it has forced banks to shift from […]
You Want to Read this Fantastic New Book from Steven Brill, which Features Better Markets’ Work The book is an eye-opening, panoramic, tour de force that connects the dots of what has happened and is happening in America. It has that rare combination of historical information, in-depth reporting, insightful analysis and great storytelling and vignettes. […]
The Punch Bowl Runneth Over Rolling back financial reform laws and rules — and deregulation of the financial industry more broadly — is almost always based on the claim that lending and economic growth will increase. For example, community banks and their advocates have claimed that the passage of the Senate deregulation bill (S. 2155) […]
With Red Lights Flashing Danger, Where Are the Adults in Finance? It seems almost everyone in finance is cheering on the deregulation frenzy in Washington and the demise of consumer protection and enforcement in the financial markets. Given that an historic crash happened just ten years ago and the too-frequent predatory conduct in the industry […]
A Badge of Honor for FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig: “Wall Street’s Least Favorite Regulator is Calling It Quits.” As we have said, FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig has been a fearless, distinguished public servant. Yesterday was his last day at the FDIC, inexplicably not reappointed there or appointed to some other prominent position. “Inexplicable” […]
Given that Its Shareholders Pay, What Is the Point of Fining Wells Fargo $1 Billion? Punishment, Deterrence or Political Posturing? No question Wells Fargo has engaged in massive illegal and even criminal conduct. Its systemic, widespread, predatory conduct spanned decades and infected numerous business lines. Frankly, the breakdown if not corruption in numerous levels of […]
The New York Fed Has a New President; Now What? After a lengthy, secretive and controversial process, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has a new President: John Williams, currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The criticism of the selection has mostly focused on the Fed’s undeniable lack of […]
Three Key Thoughts on the Senate Bipartisan Bill De-regulating the Biggest Banks in the Country First, this is not the priority of the American people, but it is why they think Washington is out-of-touch and corrupt. Matt Yglesias has a must-read piece in Vox concisely detailing why the bill is unnecessary, dangerous and politically dumb. […]
Fed Chairman Powell, as he prepares for his first Congressional testimony as Chairman this week, will be reading and talking about all the standard monetary policy issues and questions (as captured in this article). However, the one article he should read and think deeply about is this one: Three Questions for Federal Reserve Chairman Jay […]
Better Markets Bites Dog Again, Agreeing with The Clearing House, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department That the OLA Failsafe is Necessary Better Markets, Jamie Dimon, The Clearing House and Trump’s Treasury Department all agree that the government must have a last resort, failsafe mechanism to resolve gigantic, complex, […]
Better Markets Bites Dog: Blind Blue Team – Red Team Devotion is Wrong We’ve been criticized for not being sufficiently one-sided since we opened the doors in 2010. We have tried to be substantive, data-driven, fact-based and straight-shooters, calling them as we see them. We analyze a subject and try to take a position that […]
The Fed’s Action Against Wells Fargo Sends a Message to Banks and Boardrooms Across America As we said more than a year ago, Wells Fargo needed to take far-reaching, fundamental, concrete, unexpected and painful actions to fix the management, systems and controls failures that gave rise to their decade-long egregious misconduct. If not, we said, […]
The Wall Street Journal is Right: Money Market Fund Rules Are Essential to Preventing Financial Crashes and Need to Be Stronger One of the most consequential events during the 2008 financial crisis was when the Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck” right after Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy. The result was a run on money […]
Democracy is Fragile and Requires Courageous Individuals to Survive It’s easy to forget how fragile democracy is and how its survival depends on courageous individuals standing up at critical times. Some are high-profile and visible, many are not. Two good reminders in the high-profile category are in the theaters right now. One is The Post, […]
When You’re the Only Consumer Voice Speaking Out, It’s No Fake Sadly, when fighting for consumers, investors and financial stability in the rulemaking process by, for example, filing comment letters, Better Markets too often finds itself as the only non-industry organization trying to get the rules right. That’s why is was particularly distressing to read […]
“Why Every American Should Want a Strong CFPB,” an Op Ed by Better Markets’ President and CEO in today’s Los Angeles Times. It focuses on what’s really at stake in the fight over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), not the personalities, the legal actions or the political maneuverings. Read the entire Op Ed here. […]
What is Happening at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? The Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Richard Cordray, resigned and (as provided for in the Dodd-Frank law) the Deputy Director took over as Acting Director, but President Trump named the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mick Mulvaney, as the […]
SEC Chair Clayton Correctly Rejected Industry Requests for SEC to Remain Blindfolded As we wrote just last week when discussing the SEC’s amicus brief supporting whistleblowers, we will not hesitate to applaud the agency when it deserves it. Another such opportunity presented itself this week when, after being pressured by industry to delay data reporting […]
Larry Summers is Right and Has a Duty to Continue to Speak Out: The Treasury Department is Compromising its Integrity, Credibility and Authority As anyone with passing familiarity of Better Markets knows, we have had our disagreements with Larry Summers. While he is indisputably intelligent and thought provoking, we have also found him to be […]
Why Is It So Important to Avoid Another Financial Crash? Sure, Avoiding Horrific Human Suffering, But Also the Great Recession is “Worse than the 1930s” and the US Has Little Capacity to Respond to the Another Crash There’s the obvious reason: to avoid the horrific human, social, economic and political costs from tens of […]
Financial Reform Newsletter October 26, 2017 The Trump Administration’s Ominous Deregulation of the Shadow Banking System Foreshadowed in the Treasury Department’s Latest Report Almost all the fights in Washington are ultimately about controlling the narrative or story about the policy or law people are trying to enact or change. The words used to […]
The Fox Telling Hens to Worry About Elephants: Goldman’s Cohn Warning about Clearing House Laughable When He’s Deregulating and Unconcerned about the Systemic Risks at Wall Street’s Too-Big-To-Fail Firms It is true that if a stampede of elephants came from far away and ran over a henhouse, that would be bad for the hens. But, […]
Unleashing Goldman Sachs & Socially Useless Activities at Wall Street’s Taxpayer-Backed Too-Big-to-Fail Banks The handful of uniquely dangerous too-big-to-fail banks like to brag about how important they are to the US economy, jobs and growth. They hide behind those claims (1) to justify taxpayers bailing them out in 2008, (2) to defend their taxpayer backing […]
Deregulating AIG Is An Historic Mistake That Sends a Terrible Message — That Recklessness and Lawbreaking Pay – and Will Once Again Leave American Taxpayers Unprotected from a Dangerous Shadow Banking System President Trump’s Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) voted last Friday to de-regulate AIG, the gigantic global financial firm that was at the center […]
How Badly Did Americans Suffer Due to the Wall Street Caused Financial Crisis? So Bad That Food Stamp Usage Reached an All-Time High, Just a Few Short Years Ago It was recently reported that food stamp usage “spiked” after the 2008 financial crash “when many Americans couldn’t find jobs and struggled to eat. Nearly 48 […]
If Dodd-Frank is So Bad for Banks, Why Are They Making So Much Money? Never let the facts get in the way of a good story goes the saying, and despite the fact that banks profits rose 10.7% in the Second Quarter of 2017, up $4.7 billion from a year earlier, banks and their allies […]
When Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer’s Hair is on Fire, People Really Should Pay Attention: Rolling Back Financial Protection Rules are “Extremely Dangerous and Extremely Short Sighted” Some people are prone to exaggeration or overstatement. Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer is not one of those people. He is the opposite. He is an urbane master […]
Higher Equity Capital Does Not Hurt Lending on Wall Street, But High Bank Payouts Do Rarely has Wall Street’s favorite myth — that higher equity capital requirements have stifled lending at the biggest banks — been dealt such a punishing blow as FDIC Vice Chair Thomas Hoenig delivered in a recent letter to Senate Banking […]
BIG WIN: Striking a Blow for Transparency, Oversight, Accountability and the Public’s Right to Know, DC Circuit Court Agrees With Better Markets that Documents Cannot be Filed Under Seal Without Independent Court Review For a democracy to work, the public must have the ability to see and understand what its government is doing in Congress, […]
Financial Reform Newsletter July 27, 2017 To Prevent Injustice and Protect Americans from Another Crash, Better Markets Files Motion to Disqualify DOJ in MetLife v FSOC Case Citing profound and unmanageable conflicts of interest, Better Markets this week went to court to disqualify the Department of Justice from representing FSOC in the MetLife v. […]
Financial Reform Newsletter: July 21, 2017 Big Bank Results Prove Dodd-Frank is Working Quarterly results from the biggest Wall Street banks this week have shown more revenue coming from lending than trading, delivering an unmistakable message: the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is working and is having the desired effect on Wall Street’s biggest banks […]
Financial Reform Newsletter July 17, 2017 CFTC Needs to Protect and Promote the Critical Role of Chief Compliance Officers Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) can play an extremely valuable role in overseeing the activities of a company, and financial institutions in particular. They have a unique perspective because they act from within the institution. If they […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 29, 2017 Don’t Worry. Be Happy. Fill Up the Punch Bowl and Party Like it’s………..2005 and Hope 2008 Never Happens Again. All 34 banks passed the Fed’s latest stress tests and will now start ejecting $100 billion or so in capital to their shareholders, thereby reducing their equity cushion, which […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 22, 2017 President Trump’s Deregulation Termites Eating Away the Foundation of our Financial and Economic Security; The Treasury Department’s Report: Yet Another Dangerous Step Closer to Another Devastating Financial Crash?; Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Financial Reform Newsletter June 15, 2017 BIG WIN for America’s Retirement Savers: Best Interest Rule in Effect! Endangering Americans’ Jobs, Homes, Retirements and Savings as well as Our Financial System, House Republicans Eviscerate Financial Protection Rules with Passage of CHOICE Act. Protecting Americans’ Economic Security, Opportunity and Prosperity Requires Us to Have an Active Legal […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 8, 2017 Insane: House Republicans Passing Biggest Financial Deregulation Bill in Decades, Stripping Away Consumer, Investor, Retiree and Bank Stability Protections. Talking with the Treasury Department about the President’s Executive Order Regarding Financial Reform Rules and Building a Stable Financial Sector that Supports the Real Economy. The Supreme Court Sides with […]
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