February 16, 2021
How A Little-Known Treasury Position Could Move Mountains For Climate Action
President Biden has promised to take a “whole-of-government” approach to tackling the climate crisis, and so far his appointees appear to be following suit. The National Climate Task Force met for the first time in a crowded zoom room last week, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and International Climate Envoy John Kerry met earlier this month to discuss their “climate finance plan” to shift capital towards investments in line with a low-carbon economy.
February 11, 2021 | The American Prospect
The Trump Holdovers Biden Still Needs to Fire
Throughout several decades in the Senate, Joe Biden earned a reputation as an institutionalist. Extraordinary circumstances, however, are pushing the new president to cast aside many of his beloved norms when they fail to account for these exceptional times. In just a few short weeks, Biden has removed officials whose predecessors had never before been fired. And faced with predictable Republican obstruction on his signature pandemic response bill, he’s eschewed endless waiting for compromise in favor of budget reconciliation.
February 04, 2021 | American Prospect
Dorothy Slater Max Moran Timi Iwayemi
Op-Ed 2020 Election/TransitionClimate and EnvironmentDepartment of JusticeFinancial RegulationFintech
Even After The Cabinet Selections, Personnel Is Policy
As grinding as the cabinet fights have been, they’re only the first wave of the Biden administration’s personnel. Now comes a new stage of the transition, in which the newly-named secretaries choose their own undersecretaries and senior advisers. Although occupants of these positions typically operate outside the national spotlight, they still wield enormous power.
February 04, 2021
Biden's Newest Treasury Tax Appointees Delight and Disappoint
Some mixed news for progressive tax enthusiasts: Joe Biden’s administration has chosen both a committed progressive tax advocate and a Republican career expert in corporate tax avoidance for its first two appointees to the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. We’re now in a strange situation where experts who testified on opposite sides of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will now serve shoulder-to-shoulder.
February 02, 2021 | Talking Points Memo
New Dem-Majority Senate Must Assess Financial Reg Appointees Through Climate-Tinted Lens
It is no longer tolerable to confirm nominees who lack awareness of the scale of our climate emergency and the immense work needed to address it across all aspects of American life.
February 01, 2021 | The Intercept
Robinhood Is A Perfect Example Of Fintech's Insidious Power
Fintech is neither inherently good nor bad; rather, like any technology, its potential impact on society is closely tied to the policy decisions guiding its use — and the next four years could define how much the fintech industry is able to shape the financial system. Left to their own devices, fintech firms could swindle average people through ill-advised day-trading or high-interest loans, usher new systemic risks into the financial system, and develop traceable, privately owned currencies with the potential to replace cash.
January 26, 2021
Why The Next CFTC Chairperson Must Prioritize Climate Action Over Market Fads
Initially created to regulate futures derivatives on crops that had yet to be harvested, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) holds newfound possibility in the coming decade. It is absolutely crucial that a modern-day CFTC taps into the power it already holds to lead on climate action. Naturally, this necessitates a leader with a proven record of taking on corporate power. Any appointee should be prepared to advocate for the public interest, acknowledge the current reality of climate decay we find ourselves in, and creatively apply tools of the government to take immediate action.
January 26, 2021
13 Questions Which Fintech-Tied Appointees Must Be Able To Answer
Lately, fintech-funded individuals like Michael Barr have been rumored for powerful financial regulatory positions, despite the fact that this would leave them in charge of decisions directly affecting the firms they advised.
January 22, 2021
Department of the Obvious: Wall Street and FinTech Friendly People Should Not Oversee Federal Banking System
Racial Wealth Gap Expert Mehrsa Baradaran is an Alternative to Michael Barr, a Wall Street and Big Tech Ally.
January 22, 2021
Fintech’s Gaze Into The Biden Administration
As President Biden continues to staff his administration, the nascent fintech industry will be keeping close watch on the personnel appointed to key regulatory positions. It would be prudent to keep private fintech evangelists away from the positions that are responsible for regulating these firms and cryptocurrencies.
January 22, 2021
Potential Comptroller of the Currency Mehrsa Baradaran’s Background
Baradaran seems committed to challenging the status quo of our financial system that sidelines poor and marginalized communities. The OCC has long been part of a banking system that reinforces racial injustice rather than addresses it — and that remained largely true even after Dodd-Frank was passed and implemented by Obama’s regulatory team. Voices like Baradaran’s are valuable in reconsidering financial regulation and helping raise the bar for who is and who is not an adequately zealous regulator.
January 21, 2021
Why the Comptroller of the Currency Must Be a Climate Leader
The OCC could also update the Comptroller’s Handbook to guide bank examiners to measure climate risk in their assessments, which would force banks to measure climate risk in their own internal stress tests. This would also push banks to make environmentally sound decisions, because they would be recontextualized as financially savvy decisions.
January 12, 2021
Gary Gensler Would Lead An Un-Captured SEC To New Climate Regs
Gensler’s first order of business at the SEC will be to reverse Trump’s deregulatory agenda and rebuild the agency’s capacity to police American stock-trading. But this should only be a starting point: SEC activity was insufficient even under Obama, and issues linked to the financial system, from climate change to inequality, have worsened in the four intervening years.
January 11, 2021 | Sludge
BlackRock Alum Who Developed Neoliberal Policies for Obama Will Be Harris’ Chief Economist
Michael Pyle, Vice President Harris’ incoming chief economist, is the latest member of BlackRock’s “shadow government” to be hired by the Biden-Harris administration. His record working for austerity advocate Peter Orzsag and TPP-proponent Lael Brainard should be a major red flag.
January 05, 2021
Blog Post 2020 Election/TransitionCabinetExecutive BranchFinancial RegulationRevolving DoorRight-Wing MediaTech
Biden Should Beware The Right-Wing's Revolving Door Attacks
Fresh off defending Donald Trump’s historic corruption, conservatives have begun attacking President-elect Biden for his nominees’ ties to Big Tech, Wall Street, and corporate lobbying. While these attacks are transparently hypocritical, they are not without factual substance and could prove to be a major political liability for Democrats unless they commit to adopting much-needed ethics reforms.