Better Markets Month in Review Newsletter - December 2023

Hi friend,

Happy New Year!

As we look to the possibilities of a new year, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on the impact the Better Markets team has had in 2023 thanks to your support.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the resulting banking crisis in early 2023 was a galvanizing moment for Better Markets and a stark illustration of why our work is so important. We had been sounding the alarm about the threat to our banking system throughout the deregulation of the Trump administration, as the Biden administration took office, and in the months before the crash. We take no pleasure in being right, but the crash, contagion, and bailouts were predictable, and predicted. As the crisis unfolded and in its aftermath, we provided real-time analysis of the causes and pushed policymakers and regulators to enact real change to protect Main Street families from needless bank failures, deposit flight, and increases in the cost of credit.

There are simply too few with the expertise and willing to speak the truth about the flaws in our financial system and the threat they pose to Main Street. Your support allows us to have the firepower to be a truly independent and fearless counterweight to Wall Street’s megabanks and the larger financial industry.

In 2023 you also helped us stand up to a plot to allow gambling on U.S. elections, shed light on a lawless crypto industry, advocate for rules that protect Main Street families, consumers, and investors, and highlight growing concerns about climate change and the looming threat to our financial system.

2024 will likely be even more consequential. Wall Street’s megabanks are poised to continue their propaganda campaign against modest capital requirements necessary to protect our financial system. The crypto industry is pushing regulators and your elected officials to enact their special interests in an attempt to profit from a dangerous, speculative product that has no legitimate use. And numerous federal agencies face relentless obstruction as financial industry lobbyists and their allies try to delay as many needed reforms as possible, hoping that they will be able to buy more industry-friendly officials in the 2024 election.

I want you to know that in 2024 Better Markets will continue to fight against these special interests and continue to fight for sensible rules to protect your savings, investments, jobs, homes, retirements and, yes, dreams from an industry more interested in wealth extraction than wealth creation. Together we can speak the truth about the policies that make a difference in the lives of Americans, get them enacted, and put them into action, creating better markets, banks, businesses, and communities.

Thank you again for your support and partnership in this important work! Looking forward to another year of progress and shared achievements.

Kindly,
Maryan

Maryan Abdelmesih
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development, Better Markets

The SEC’s whistleblower program has proven to be an incredibly effective law enforcement tool at incentivizing individuals to come forward and blow the whistle on illegal conduct that otherwise would not have been uncovered. Our new report outlines just how critical this program has been, allowing the SEC to better protect investors and maintain a fair marketplace.

In December, the CEOs of the eight largest banks on Wall Street testified before the Senate Banking Committee. In our statement, we explain how the CEOs failed to mention making $1 trillion in profits over the past ten years, paid themselves hundreds of billions of dollars in bonuses, and pretend that higher capital requirements would hurt them and their customers.

We think retirement savers should be protected from powerful conflicts of interest that in effect allow financial advisers to rip off hardworking Americans who are struggling to save for a descent retirement. That’s why Better Markets is supporting rules proposed by the Department of Labor to do that and why Stephen Hall, legal director and securities specialist, testified in front of the DoL at its public hearing on these proposed rules.

We think its wrong for the financial industry to rip off investors no matter how sophisticated they might be. That’s why we filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC. In our brief, we show very clearly that even supposedly sophisticated investors need disclosure to make sound investment decisions and that they are vulnerable to abusive practices like all investors.

Better Markets in the News

“[Bitnomial’s approval] not only allows crypto firms to get bigger, but it positions them to get connected to the core of the financial system, where when they get in trouble, like dominoes, they could have knock-on effects on the traditional banking and financial system, which could lead to crashes and bailouts.”

Activities at the Regulatory 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.

With a two-part government funding deal passed in late November that goes through January 19th and February 2nd, it ended up being a quiet month on Capitol Hill. However, even with funding continuing into the new year, some committees continued to work.