Our Blog

The March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) — aside from foregrounding the hypocrisy of neoliberal pundits and libertarian venture capitalists alike — spotlighted the instability of the cryptocurrency industry’s most ostensibly stable offering. Hidden within the uncertainty of SVB’s fate following a $42 billion withdrawal frenzy was a similar crisis of confidence for Circle Internet Financial and its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC).

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and DOJ Antitrust Division have long served as an essential stop for antitrust experts looking to maximize opportunities, influence, and compensation at BigLaw firms and monopolistic corporations. By spending some time learning the ins and outs of government investigations and enforcement efforts, revolvers are seen by potential corporate employers to be better equipped to assist corporations in antitrust lawsuits against their former government employers.

This is the latest installment of a new biweekly blog series from RDP. Every two weeks, we call out ongoing trends in media coverage of the Justice Department’s focus and priorities, giving context from our past DOJ oversight work as needed, with an eye to the impact of DOJ capacity and resources, as well as alignment with the Biden administration’s professed goals.

One glaring blind spot does jump out: the complete absence of the names ‘Quarles,’ ‘Barr,’ ‘Powell,’ or any other actual member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from the main text of the report.”

Biden’s best regulator takes aim at one of the biggest barriers to accessing rental housing.

The Fed report is being written by Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, whose own failures ought to be among the report’s focuses.

Earlier this month, ProPublica released a report documenting decades of undisclosed lavish gifts Justice Clarence Thomas and his family received from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow. These gifts included a yacht trip around Indonesia, flights on Crow’s private jet, free stays at Crow’s private country club, and more. One week later, the news outlet published a follow-up report detailing how Thomas also sold property to Crow without disclosing it. Thomas’s mother has continued to reside at that property rent-free while Crow funds significant renovations.

Rolling back Trump’s framework just means that FSOC is allowing itself to see the financial system through a realistic lens.

As the revelations of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s flagrant corruption continue to unspool, scrutiny of the weak ethics rules binding the Court has intensified. The Senate Judiciary Committee is supposed to oversee the Court, but it has proven itself not remotely up to the task of rooting out judicial corruption. And amid this disturbing situation, a Supreme Court conference this Friday provides an opening for Court conservatives to try to game their few ethical limits in plain sight.

It’s high time that members of the press who regularly turn to Summers for his views on the economy begin questioning him on how he is able to adequately perform his multiple advisory roles and moreover, why there is a pattern of illegality at firms he advises. Or they could simply toss him to the aether, and platform non-conflicted experts instead.