FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or njacobs@bettermarkets.com
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement following the announced nomination of Steven Mnuchin to be Secretary of the Treasury:
“President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, was a pioneer in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading at Goldman Sachs. FICC was the very dangerous, high risk, high stakes gambling that Dodd Frank in general and the Volcker Rule in particular were meant to end at Wall Street’s biggest banks. Eliminating the Volcker Rule and the other financial reform rules that Mr. Mnuchin is talking about will bring back Wall Street’s Wild West gambling that caused the 2008 financial crash and economic calamity.
“If Mr. Mnuchin and President Trump de-regulate and unleash Wall Street’s biggest banks as they are suggesting, then it’s time to start the countdown clock to the next financial crash which will make the last one look mild by comparison. The American political, social, financial and economy system simply does not have the capacity to withstand another catastrophic shock. More importantly, the American people have already suffered enough from Wall Street’s recklessness. Candidate Trump sounded like he understood that, but President-elect Trump seems to have forgotten it.
“Mr. Mnuchin should know better. For most of his time at Goldman, it was a private partnership where the partners’ own personal money was at risk in every trade and the firm’s informal motto was ‘long term greedy.’ But, all that changed when Goldman went public in 1999 and became a trading colossus focused on maximizing short term returns. All that changed again in the middle of the 2008 crisis when Goldman became a taxpayer-backed, Fed-regulated bank holding company.
“If Mr. Mnuchin thinks about any of this, then he will quickly see the value and importance of strong financial reform, the Volcker Rule in particular. If he’s genuinely interested in growth in and lending to the real economy and the creation of jobs throughout America and not just on Wall Street, then he will see that strong, well-capitalized, properly regulated banks are a precondition to that, not a barrier.”
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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.com.
