WASHINGTON, D.C.— Dennis Kelleher, President, CEO and Co-founder of Better Markets, issued the following statement ahead of this week’s Senate vote on Governor Michelle Bowman’s nomination to become Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Fed”).
“Trump has nominated Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman to become one of the most important financial regulators in the US and the world, the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Fed. Her job will be to protect the jobs, homes and savings of hardworking Main Street Americans from the profit-maximizing risks created by Wall Street’s biggest, most dangerous megabanks. Unfortunately, Bowman has the opposite views: while claiming to care about Main Street, she enthusiastically and unequivocally supports those banks’ priority of deep, broad and mindless deregulation, which will no doubt contribute to another horrific crash.
“You don’t have to believe what we say about Bowman; you only have to read her statements and testimony as detailed in the attached Fact Sheet and summary. Additionally, to make her views unmistakably clear, she hired two of Wall Street’s biggest lobbyists and a Vice President from Goldman Sachs as staff in the Fed’s supervision and regulation division. That makes clear to the American people what her real priorities are.
“This critical position was created in response to the devastating 2008 crash because the Fed for years failed miserably to properly regulate and supervise Wall Street’s megabanks. As a result, those banks engaged in widespread reckless, predatory, and illegal activities that enriched Wall Street, but inflicted catastrophic losses on Main Street Americans, including throwing 27 million out of work, causing 16 million foreclosure filings, and pushing 40% of homes under water, while Wall Street got trillions of dollars in bailouts and tens of billions of dollars in bonuses. With Bowman leading the Fed into another era of deregulation, that’s going to happen again, and Main Street is going to suffer the consequences.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
