The Real Motivation for the Bank Lobby Campaign Against the FDIC Chair is Avoiding Tighter Scrutiny
Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement ahead of an oversight hearing in the House Financial Services Committee tomorrow with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Martin Gruenberg and other key financial regulators.
“There is a cynical bank lobbyist-led campaign to fire FDIC Chair Marty Gruenberg, under the pretense that we have to make a false choice between cracking down on Wall Street or fixing the long-standing problematic culture of this bank regulatory agency,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “It should be rejected.”
“While there are serious issues at the FDIC, the Wall Street orchestrated attempt to remove the Chair is merely a way of blocking tighter rules on large banks,” added Stoller. “The true goal of this campaign is not to address longstanding workplace harms at the FDIC, but to deadlock the commission at 2-2 and ensure that new regulations to avoid financial crises and protect economic stability can’t pass. Unless opponents of Gruenberg have another FDIC Chair candidate who will support critical financial security rules currently lined up and ready to be confirmed by the Senate, the campaign should be ignored. Either way, the American people deserve a bank regulator who will stand up to Wall Street, just as employees of the FDIC deserve a working environment that is respectful and brings out the best in every worker there.”
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.