In an interview with Reuters, Donald Trump pledge to take apart President Obama's Wall Street reform:
The New York billionaire said he planned to release a detailed policy platform in two weeks that would propose dismantling nearly all of Dodd-Frank, a package of financial reforms put in place after the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
"Dodd-Frank is a very negative force, which has developed a very bad name," he said.
For a guy who claims he can win the votes of Bernie Sanders' supporters, he has an odd way of going about it.
Certainly Sanders wants Wall Street regulation that goes farther than Dodd-Frank. As he said last year, "Although I voted for Dodd-Frank, I did so knowing it was a modest piece of legislation. Dodd-Frank did not end much of the casino-style gambling on Wall Street. In fact, much of this reckless activity is still going on today."
But going backwards on Wall Street reform is hardly the best approach to win over Bernie's populist following.
Trump is also factually wrong that Dodd-Frank has "has developed a very bad name." The Roosevelt Institute's Mike Konczal last year called the law "Obama's most underappreciated achievement." He credits the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by the law for "$10.1 billion in relief to consumers, much of it stemming from manipulative conduct in mortgage services or deceptive practices in the credit card industry." He touts the "transparency, centralization, and attention to process" for derivatives swaps that "should allow for greatly improved risk management." He also says "there's been progress" on ensuring no bank will be "too big to fail."
Also, back in November, Politico investigated how bank size has been impacted by the law and found "JPMorgan Chase is selling off a chunk of its private equity business. AIG is contemplating breaking into smaller pieces. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are watching trading profits dwindle with no real clue whether or when they will ever come back. Giant banks including Wells Fargo will now be required to raise about $120 billion in new capital. General Electric is getting out of the financial services business entirely."
Every day, the evidence is clearer. Donald Trump is no economic populist. His tax plan would favor the wealthiest Americans and his anti-regulation views would leave Wall Street unsupervised.
