Why the movie “The Big Short” matters: As a piercing reminder of the devastating 2008 financial crash (with five Oscar nominations), hopefully the movie The Big Short can be a catalyst for a long overdue national conversation about financial reform. The movie sheds light on the worst financial crash since The Great Crash of 1929 and how […]
Year-End News You Might Have Missed, but Should Not First, a BIG WIN: the handful of uniquely dangerous too-big-to-fail banks on Wall Street tried again to hijack the annual funding process and hold it hostage to their special interests, which cannot withstand the scrutiny of the light of day. They failed, as this article makes […]
Ending too-big-to-fail by breathing life into “Living Wills”: Wall Street’s biggest banks don’t want to play by the same rules as every other company in America and file bankruptcy when they fail. Just like before the 2008 financial crash, they want to continue their high-risk gambling and force taxpayers to bail them out so they […]
Want to know how Wall Street crashed the global economy in an understandable and entertaining way? You must see the movie The Big Short: This movie cuts through disinformation and complexity the Wall Street fog machine has generated to keep Americans from knowing how the 2008 financial crisis really happened. The Big Short, an adaptation […]
The details of the omnibus spending bill were released Tuesday night, and they made clear that the American people have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. President Obama, his administration, and many members of Congress stood up to Wall Street’s money, power, and might, and thanks to them, the annual funding bill does […]
New Video on the Department of Labor Rule: Right now, Wall Street is using the appropriations process to try to kill a Department of Labor rule supported by President Obama, Senator Booker, Senator Warren, and other leaders in Washington. Watch our new video urging all members of Congress to side with retirement savers, not Wall […]
Obama administration standing up to Wall Street and against its attempts to hijack the appropriations process: Wall Street and its army of lobbyists are currently hard at work, once again trying to hijack must-pass legislation as a vehicle to enact its dangerous deregulatory wish list. This year, it’s essentially holding national priorities like health care, the environment, and […]
Working to give the public the transparency it deserves: Last week, Better Markets filed a motion to give the public the transparency it deserves in MetLife vs. FSOC, MetLife’s lawsuit challenging the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) designation of the global insurance company as a possible systemic risk. This is a landmark case that could […]
Sixteen years after the repeal of Glass-Steagall, we must reflect honestly about the past to protect the American people from future financial crashes: November 12, 1999 marked the effective repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the law put in place after the Great Depression to separate traditional, commercial banking from higher-risk investment and trading firms. It […]
What is more important than fighting terrorism, educating our children, researching cures for cancer, cleaning up polluted air and water, and other national priorities? Wall Street is holding these priorities hostage to its dangerous deregulation agenda: As Carter Dougherty recently wrote in a piece titled Warren Tries to Head Off Wall Street Gifts on Congressional Christmas […]
SEC should immediately remove financial industry lawbreakers from the Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee and restructure it to serve the public interest: As the public outcry ignited by Michael Lewis’s terrific book Flash Boys, reached a fevered pitch, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed it created the Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee (Committee) earlier this year as a […]
Reframing the debate on the 2016 presidential race, too-big-to-fail, and more: As Presidential candidates continue talking about the unique threat posed by the too-big-to-fail megabanks and detailing their plans to rein in Wall Street to protect Main Street, Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher appeared on C-SPAN last week to discuss that and more. […]
The Democratic candidates debated financial reform and why that is so important to everyone in the country: The American people are still suffering from the economic wreckage caused by the 2008 financial crash (as our Cost of the Crisis report details). For too many American families, the crisis that started seven years ago has never […]
Important new book on the role of finance in society: “What is finance for?” is a rarely asked question, but it was a hot topic at a book event Better Markets hosted with the International Political Economy program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) last week for leading academic and Financial […]
If you loved bailing out AIG ($182 billion plus) and so many other reckless financial firms in 2008, then root for MetLife to win its lawsuit against the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s designation of it as systemically significant: October 1st marked the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), […]
After years of consideration, consultation and an unprecedented comment period, the Department of Labor has all the input and information it needs to quickly finalize the proposed best interest rule and protect retirement savers: This years-long fight is about a very simple principle: should the financial services industry be required to put their clients’ best interest […]
Wall Street hostage taking: Adding another reason for Main Street to hate it, Wall Street and its lobbyists are again working the dark corners of Washington DC to get their political allies to include special interest provisions in must-pass funding bills at the expense of the American people: Funding for the federal government runs out […]
Must-read investigative report highlights Wall Street’s taxpayer-backed too-big-to-fail banks latest lobbying to avoid key financial reforms designed to protect U.S. taxpayers from having to bail out Wall Street again: Reuters’ Charles Levinson has written a must-read investigative report on Wall Street’s latest scheme to avoid critically important financial reforms: change a few words in their derivatives contracts and pretend that […]
SEC “enforcement” still failing. Justice delayed is justice denied: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week announced a nearly $180 million settlement with two Citigroup affiliates (Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Citigroup Alternative Investments LLC, collectively “Citi”) “to settle charges that they defrauded investors in two hedge funds by claiming they were safe, low-risk, and suitable […]
File under “there should be a law”: Wall Street’s biggest banks, their trade groups and many others in the finance industry are relentlessly attacking a proposed rule that would merely require them to put the best interests of their clients saving for retirement first: It is as shocking as it is indefensible that the law today […]
Watch our new video to learn how Better Markets stands up to too-big-to-fail banks and fights for you: A landmark guilty verdict in a London-based LIBOR trial should be just the beginning of individual accountability in global finance: A jury this week handed down a guilty verdict in the LIBOR trial involving former UBS […]
The American people deserve to know where candidates stand on Glass-Steagall: Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and the other presidential candidates, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and John McCain, are talking about the Glass-Steagall Act, which needs to be informed by context, facts and nuance. That’s why Better Markets has released a fact sheet about the […]
Better Markets marks fifth anniversary of historic Dodd-Frank financial reform law: July 21st, 2015 marks the fifth anniversary of President Obama signing the historic Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law, the most significant financial reform legislation in generations. To mark this historic occasion, Better Markets held a special event in […]
Asking for another catastrophic financial crash: The Wall Street Journal recently published an editorial claiming that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is an agency run amok, acting arbitrarily in its decisions to designate firms like MetLife as systemically important. It published another editorial falsely claiming lacked the data to show MetLife is systemically important. […]
SEC finally begins to address the corrupt bonus culture on Wall Street: The prospect of hundreds of billions of dollars in bonuses incentivized pervasive reckless, illegal and criminal conduct all across Wall Street in the years before the 2008 crash. For too many, getting the biggest annual bonus possible overwhelmed every other consideration. Wall Street’s dangerous and irresponsible […]
Pinocchio The big lie: When you hear Wall Street and its allies say they are for the fiduciary “clients’ interest first” standard for retirement advice, don’t believe what they say. Watch what they and their lobbyists do, which has been to fight relentlessly to either kill the rule or fill it so full of loopholes that […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 18, 2015 Fighting to give Americans the trusted retirement security advice they expect and deserve: The Department of Labor’s best interest standard is a common sense rule merely requiring brokers and other financial advisers to act in their clients’ best interest rather than their own personal interests when providing retirement investment […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 11, 2015 Don’t believe Putnam Investments CEO’s claims about acting in their clients’ best interests; believe Putnam’s SEC filings that contradict Putnam’s CEO: Putnam Investment’s CEO Robert Reynolds recently attacked the DOL rule that would simply require Putnam and other retirement advisors to put their clients’ interests first. In addition to […]
Financial Reform Newsletter June 4, 2015 A strong economy that works for all Americans; a balanced financial system that supports, not threatens, the real economy; sensible financial reform rules of the road everyone follows; preventing financial crashes, economic wreckage & bailouts; ending dangerous too-big-to-fail banks, firms & activities: those aren’t and shouldn’t be partisan […]
Financial Reform Newsletter May 28, 2015 Latest DOJ settlements pose a big test for new Attorney General Loretta Lynch Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher was on the Ed Show on MSNBC last week discussing the Department of Justice’s currency-rigging settlements with too-big-to-fail banks UBS AG, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr. Kelleher […]
A new report out this week titled The Street, The Bull and The Crisis: A Survey of the US & UK Financial Services Industry, makes clear yet again a point that Better Markets has been making for years: that the DOJ and SEC’s settlement policy amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist and doesn’t deter crime. Just […]
New report shows the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission’s slap on the wrist settlement policy not scaring anyone on Wall Street: A new report out this week titled The Street, The Bull and The Crisis: A Survey of the US & UK Financial Services Industry, makes clear yet again a point that Better Markets has been making for […]
Financial Reform Newsletter May 14, 2015 Court ruling shows DOJ and SEC dereliction of duty and failure to enforce the law on Wall Street: In a major ruling, Judge Denise Cote of the Federal District Court in Southern District of New York ruled this week that Nomura Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland knowingly sold Fannie and […]
Financial Reform Newsletter May 7, 2015 The $1 trillion so-called “Flash Crash” remains shrouded in mystery and our markets remain precarious and vulnerable on the five year anniversary of this historic crash: Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the innocuously titled Flash Crash, where the stock market lost close to $1 trillion before bouncing back […]
Financial Reform Newsletter April 30, 2015 Stating “fiduciary standard desperately needed,” Wells Fargo compliance officer makes startling admission that NOT acting in the best interests of retirement clients is widespread and obvious: We have said for a long time that a “best interests” fiduciary duty is not only needed, but long overdue because […]
Financial Reform Newsletter April 22, 2015 Trickle up, trickle down; pro-growth or pro-distribution and other false choices intelligently discussed by Nobel Prize winning Columbia University economist Joe Stiglitz on CNBC Squawk Box this morning: Too much of the discussion about economics, the economy, finance and financial reform are closed-minded, ideological, political point-scoring or disguised industry purchased […]
Financial Reform Newsletter April 08, 2015 April Fools joke highlights how high frequency trading is no laughing matter: High frequency trading is the Wild West of our financial markets: opaque and unregulated. Sound familiar? It should because in many ways it’s like the OTC derivatives market before the 2008 financial crash. Every day, […]
Financial Reform Newsletter April 01, 2015 Wall Street’s biggest banks try to threaten lawmakers fighting to protect families from another financial crash: Wall Street’s biggest banks have never taken any responsibility for the financial crash in 2008 that touched every corner of our country and caused economic wreckage for tens of millions of Americans. And now, they’re […]
Financial Reform Newsletter March 26, 2015 Protecting America’s families, workers, savers, homeowners, retirees and communities from another economic catastrophe: Too often when Washington talks about financial reform, too many focus on the trees (a particular regulation, industry or firm) and ignore the forest — why we have laws and regulations in the first place: to protect […]
Financial Reform Newsletter March 20, 2015 Court rules that there are no checks and balances when the Executive Branch settles cases, even those that caused the worst financial crash since 1929 and caused the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, costing the US more than $12.8 trillion: Longtime readers know that Better Markets sued […]
Financial Reform Newsletter March 13, 2015 Might there be accountability of a senior executive at a “too big to fail” bank? First, let’s remember that “too big to fail” is shorthand for too big, too complex, too opaque, too leveraged, too interconnected, too illiquid and too reliant on short term funding, which means that not […]
Financial Reform Newsletter March 04, 2015 CEO Dennis Kelleher talking with European Commissioner Jonathan Hill Ambassador of the EU to the US David O’Sullivan Better Markets fights for financial reform from Brussels to Washington, DC: Playing countries and regulators against each other, while exaggerating concerns about domestic financial firms, […]
Financial Reform Newsletter February 25, 2015 Photo: White House Tumblr Protecting Americans’ retirement savings, security and dignity: President Obama, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. John Delaney and other leaders, announced a very important retirement security initiative this week: ending conflicts of interests and hidden fees when people save for retirement. This common sense rule merely requires brokers and […]
MUST SEE TV: Better Markets’ CEO takes on the propaganda machine of Wall Street’s too big to fail banks and the pollution of the public debate: One of the unfortunate things about Washington DC policy debates is that they are often fact-free or little more than spin. Too much of that comes from what we call […]
Financial Reform Newsletter February 13, 2015 Economic Growth/Jobs AND Financial Stability/Security Last week Better Markets participated in a conference hosted by its partner and sister organization Finance Watch in Brussels. President and CEO Dennis Kelleher delivered a speech that outlined the challenges facing financial reform advocates and reminded the audience of why financial reform is not only crucial to global […]
Financial Reform Newsletter February 05, 2015 Ignoring the priorities and concerns of voters and taxpayers again, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has made Wall Street’s agenda its top priority for 2015. The House leadership has already tried three times to push two Wall Street deregulation bills through in its first two weeks […]
Financial Reform Newsletter January 29, 2015 President Obama Promises to Protect America’s Families and Workers from Wall Street and another Financial Crash by Vetoing Attempts to Weaken Financial Reform: In last week’s State of the Union , President Obama reaffirmed that he will use the veto to prevent attacks to weaken or kill financial reform, which is […]
Financial Reform Newsletter January 09, 2015 Welcome to 2015! Many have asked what was in the news over the holidays that they might have missed, but would want to know. Here are some highlights: Again, why Silicon Valley (and all of corporate America more broadly) needs to care about what’s going on with […]
Financial Reform Newsletter December 23, 2014 Before we get to the best of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert 2014 Wall Street segments, here are a few items that might interest you: What Was That Year-End CRomnibus Swaps Push Out Funding Fight All About and Why Should Anyone Care? Take a few minutes to […]
Financial Reform Newsletter March 13, 2014 The 2008 financial crash caused the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the top 1% are doing very well: Last week’s newsletter discussed yet another study showing how middle-class wealth has plummeted since the crash of 2008. Today’s New York Times shows “Fueled by Recession, US Wealth Gap […]
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