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Elizabeth Warren: If Trump Wants to Unrig the Economy, I’m In
I will lead Democrats on the Banking Committee to lower costs, advance security and cut red tape.
By Elizabeth Warren
Jan. 13, 2025 4:26 pm ET
The mission of the Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is to deliver what Americans have asked for in election after election: unrigging the economy to make life more affordable for working families.
I’m ready to work with Chairman Tim Scott, Donald Trump and business leaders whenever they support policies that rebuild the middle class, advance our economic and national security, and fight the corruption of those who seek to use government to enrich themselves. We have at least four specific tasks ahead.
First, we must lower costs and improve access to financial services. Last year housing costs reached the highest level in decades. Conservatives who believe this is a supply problem are right. Liberals who believe price fixing and corporate landlords are culprits are also right. Congress has been asleep at the switch on both fronts.
Our committee should pursue serious federal investment to create incentives for home construction, establish partnerships with local communities to cut red tape, and take on Wall Street landlords that are squeezing families out of local markets. The Federal Reserve, after driving mortgage rates to their highest levels since 2008, should cut rates further. The Trump administration can help by transferring or selling unused federal property to local actors to increase supply. We should avoid anything that risks raising housing prices, such as privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a way that rewards Wall Street while inflating the cost of borrowing.
We should continue President Biden’s popular fights against junk fees, corporate consolidation and price gouging. Mr. Trump one-upped Democrats by proposing to cap credit-card rates at 10%. I’ll work with Republicans to make it happen. If the president-elect is serious about protecting consumers, he should support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s work to lower costs. Since 2011, the bureau has returned more than $20 billion to customers who were cheated by credit-card companies and financial institutions, and it’s fighting to protect conservatives from discrimination by banks. Outside corporate C-suites, it’s loved by Americans of all political stripes.
Second, we must advance economic and national security. Our committee has key responsibilities over export controls, sanctions, trade policy, corporate transparency, domestic supply chains and other levers to support our economic security at home and promote our values abroad. I’ll support the Trump administration if it uses these tools responsibly. That includes helping American industry grow and preventing terrorists from exploiting our financial system—not doing favors for corporate lobbyists or countries that don’t share our values.
Third, we must ensure that our financial system serves families and the real economy. Community lenders provide the majority of loans to the small businesses that power our economy, but these small lenders are getting swallowed by too-big-to-fail banks. This consolidation stifles competition and access to credit. Meanwhile, private-equity raiders continue to hollow out businesses and communities by buying up everything from grocery stores to hospitals—again killing competition.
Risk is building in the system. Too-big-to-fail banks are quietly taking on riskier investments. The shadowy private credit market has loaded up on highly leveraged loans. And after waves of catastrophic losses, the insurance industry faces a reckoning that even climate-change deniers can’t ignore. Without significant changes, another financial crash is coming.
The committee must address these risks. We can pass the Recoup Act, which would reduce incentives for risk-taking by clawing back compensation from bank executives who got big paychecks while their banks failed. We can build on the work JD Vance and I did in the Senate to hold bank regulators accountable when their solution to bank failures is to arrange more megabank mergers. And we can establish common-sense rules for artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and fintech to promote stability and ensure that innovation serves all consumers, investors and business—not only billionaires and big banks, and certainly not terrorists.
And yes, we should simplify financial regulations. Republicans are right that regulatory complexity can drive up costs and hurt smaller companies that don’t have armies of lobbyists. Simpler structural rules such as Glass-Steagall would eliminate a mountain of paperwork and end the need for regulators to intrude into businesses. Clearer rules would create more transparency and give Americans across the country simpler access to public markets.
Finally, we must be vigilant against so-called reforms that make it easier for Wall Street to rip off consumers or crash the financial system. Three of the four largest bank failures in our history occurred in 2023. These failures came in the wake of reforms that encouraged regulators to ease up too much. Similarly, tariffs and sanctions are powerful tools that we can use to protect consumers and our security, but they can also be exploited to dole out corporate welfare to well-connected businessmen or protect monopolies. Our job is to ask hard questions of companies, regulators and officials who put their own interests ahead of the public’s.
When I was a kid, my daddy lost his job and our family teetered on the edge of losing our home. My life’s work has focused on reducing the obstacles families face to build a better future. That’s why I came to Washington in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, started the CFPB and became a senator. I’ll continue that work in my role on the Banking Committee.
Ms. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee.
