Financial Reform
Like most North Carolinians, I see a direct connection between the economic problems on Main Street and the 2008 financial crisis enabled by Wall Street. That’s why I support smart regulations to make sure that big banks and financial firms never again take short-sighted risks that can bring the entire global economy to a standstill and leave ordinary Americans holding the bag. As I have argued throughout this campaign, the U.S. Senate should be a place where complex and significant legislation, such as financial reform, is addressed. Instead, we have witnessed months of politicking and special interest influence, increasing the chances that financial reform legislation will be watered down or simply put off. Below, I offer my ideas for how to reform our financial sector:
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I will fight for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to ensure that banks and credit card companies are prohibited from using tricks, fine print, and other unethical practices to lure Americans into bad deals that can ruin their financial futures. Just as the FDA is tasked with making sure that food, drugs, and medical devices are safe, we need an independent agency that is free from the financial lobbyists, to protect us from dangerous financial products, whether they are credit cards with unfair terms or sub-prime mortgages.
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I support giving federal regulators “resolution authority” so that they can close down failing financial institutions without asking the American taxpayers to foot the bill. Instead, my plan would be funded by the banks and financial institutions themselves, so that they would be accountable if they cause another financial crisis. If we had this authority in 2008, the bailout would have been unnecessary.
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I believe that we need to consolidate our inefficient patchwork of regulators to create a systemic risk council that has the power and political will to provide oversight for the entire financial industry. We must also make sure that our regulators are well-trained and operate with agencies that are well-informed, flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing products and practices of modern financial institutions. Many of the products that led to the financial crisis, such as credit default swaps, were unregulated, so it was difficult for anyone to know about the scope of the problem until it was too late. Also, we need to increase regulatory oversight of hedge funds and reform the credit rating agencies by addressing the inherent conflicts of interest that lead to the “gaming” of the ratings process by powerful financial institutions.
