Better Markets Month in Review Newsletter - August 2025

Hi friend,

As the regular season in baseball winds down and football season is about to kick off, the rivalries are heating up. Even if you’re not a sports fan, there’s one thing on which I’m sure we can all agree—everyone should play by the rules that are fairly enforced by independent, unbiased, and expert umpires or refs. The problem is that nowadays in the U.S. many corporations don’t play by the same rules, especially Wall Street’s biggest banks and the country’s financial firms who rig the economy and financial system to benefit themselves and the top 10%. Worse, the refs under the Trump administration aren’t independent or unbiased (even if they might be experts). In fact, most of them are biased financial industry allies who unsurprisingly bend the rules to benefit, you guessed it, Wall Street’s biggest banks and financial firms. That’s why no matter how hard they work or try, most Main Street Americans just can’t get ahead. That’s also why the top 10% have 67% of the wealth of the country and the bottom 50% only have about 2.5%.

At Better Markets, we fight for Main Street Americans and against Wall Street and its allies rigging the economy and the financial system. The measure of success shouldn’t be Wall Street profits; it has to be economic security, rising living standards, and increasing wealth for Main Street families. When Main Street does well, everyone does well including Wall Street – the reverse definitely isn’t true.

As you’ll see below, that means Better Markets opposed the banking agencies’ sweetheart deal to give Wall Street’s biggest banks a $250 billion break which will just boost executive pay and further enrich the top 10% (who own more than 90% of the value of the stock market). This means shining a light on former industry insider SEC Chair Paul Atkins cheerleading for crypto when the SEC is supposed to be protecting investors, markets and financial stability. It also means fighting against the financial industry stuffing high risk, dangerous, illiquid, and often mispriced private market investments and crypto into retirement funds that hardworking Americans need as they get older. And it means calling out the false claims that the recently passed stablecoin crypto GENIUS Act does anything but make it easier for the average consumer to get fleeced by the crypto industry.

Our work is enriched by the scholarship of many academics, including in particular those who are members of our incredible Better Markets Academic Advisory Board (BMAAB). On September 19, it’s holding an inaugural BMAAB State of Economic & Financial Policymaking Conference—I hope you’ll join us for that! This full-day event will bring together leading scholars and policymakers to explore today’s most urgent economic challenges—from financial regulation and banking reform to economic justice and inclusive, broad-based growth.

We should all be on the same team here. Preventing crashes, having clear rules, unbiased umpires, and an economy that works for everyone isn’t a left-right or a partisan issue. It’s an American issue. When financial firms follow the rules, the system works better for everyone—protecting and growing jobs, savings, and communities. Together, we can achieve smart safeguards today for a brighter economic future tomorrow.

Dennis

Dennis Kelleher
Co-Founder, President, & CEO

Our new report, “15 Years of Financial Reform: Dodd-Frank, Lessons (Un)Learned and the Coming Crash” details the 2008 financial crash’s horrific impact on Main Street Americans, the decades of deregulation that drove the crisis, and the lack of lessons learned, as evidenced by a renewed push for a dangerous level of financial deregulation.

More than 20 states are considering laws that would let public pension funds invest in risky cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This means retirement savings for teachers, firefighters, and other public workers could be tied to highly unpredictable digital assets. Our new report details this troubling new trend, describing how a lack of meaningful oversight or disclosure is likely to put people’s futures at risk.

This month, President Trump signed an executive order promoting the inclusion of private market investments in 401(k)s. Once again, the administration appears determined to prioritize Wall Street wealth extraction over the interests of Main Street and retail investors.

The SEC’s role has always been to ensure fair and stable markets that support the public interest, not to serve as an industry cheerleader. However, since Paul Atkins became chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he seems to be following the industry’s lead at every turn. Crypto organizations, private asset managers, and industry trade groups are all celebrating, while the investors whom the SEC exists to protect are paying the price.

The crypto stablecoin GENIUS Act that was signed into law last month was a big win for the crypto industry and its arm of lobbyists, making them rich while hurting Main Street Americans by undermining the economy, financial system, and monetary policy. Our fact sheet explains the loopholes included in the Act, ensuring the absence meaningful regulation.

Better Markets in the News

We've already seen, in the last six months, the path toward reducing some of the scrutiny that we had previously around bank mergers. And I think the bottom line really is that bank mergers need to be scrutinized, and there needs to be oversight to ensure that consumers' interests and the public interest are not sacrificed for Wall Street's profits.

Fighting for the Public Interest at the Rule Writing Agencies

Each month our legal team outlines some of the top cases we're keeping an eye on, the Amicus "Friend of the Court" Briefs we have filed, and why everyone with a bank account, credit card, mortgage loan, or retirement loan should be interested in those cases.

August is typically a slow month on Capitol Hill and in DC as legislators head back to their districts during a month-long recess. However, Members of Congress were still busy preparing for their fall agendas and responding to actions at the regulatory agencies.