Financial Regulation

March 02, 2023

Henry Burke

Blog Post

Economic PolicyExecutive BranchFederal ReserveFinancial RegulationLarry Summers

Workers Beware: Biden’s Potential Fed Pick Prescribes Unemployment & Reduced Social Security Benefits

Karen Dynan has been reported as one of a few economists on Biden’s shortlist to replace Lael Brainard on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. While her proponents have highlighted the Harvard-trained economist’s perfect centrist resume, her recent statements on how best to tackle inflation should concern workers and their allies. And this blithe analysis concerning unemployment should come as no surprise – Dynan, like Biden’s foils in the GOP, believes cuts to Social Security benefits are likely.

November 30, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter

DefenseEthics in GovernmentFinancial RegulationLabor

Union Joe’s Disgrace

If rail workers are so important to our economy that a single week of striking could cost the economy $1 billion, and if their demands are so modest that any decent employer would easily exceed them, then meeting their demands seems like the obvious solution. But the American balance of power is such that railroad bosses have the allegedly most pro-labor president in history doing their dirty work for them.

November 24, 2022 | The American Prospect

Max Moran Hannah Story Brown

Blog Post Climate and EnvironmentEthics in GovernmentFinancial Regulation

Quants, Carbon, And Climate Change

Both EA and popularism appeal to a desire for mathematical rigor and objective calculation, whether it’s calculating lives-saved-per-dollar or playing probabilities in politics.Both EA and popularism appeal to a desire for mathematical rigor and objective calculation, whether it’s calculating lives-saved-per-dollar or playing probabilities in politics.

November 23, 2022 | The New Republic

Timi Iwayemi Dylan Gyauch-Lewis

Op-Ed Congressional OversightCryptocurrencyFinancial RegulationIndependent Agencies

Don’t Fall for FTX’s Final Con

The FTX disaster should be all the impetus needed to kill off any new crypto industry–approved legislation. Instead, we need Congress to provide material support for financial regulators in the form of increased appropriations to guard against the next collapse. Much of the crypto industry is already subject to laws—the very ones that the SEC seeks to enforce and that the crypto industry broadly (not just Sam Bankman-Fried) seeks to evade by reducing the SEC’s jurisdiction ex post facto. Both the CFTC and SEC urgently need funds to fulfill their mandates. Crypto stretches these needs even further, but the need has existed for years. For decades, financial crimes have too often gone unpunished. This wasn’t for a lack of rules, but a lack of will, funds, and people willing to enforce them. Crypto doesn’t need special treatment, it needs to face the music.