Michael S. Barr’s op-ed, “Why Trump’s financial plan is so dangerous,” was published on November 14 by CNBC.
Barr worries that the Trump Administration will reverse the investor and consumer protections strengthened under President Obama, as well as dismantle regulatory bodies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The result, he says, could be troubling for “the most vulnerable among us.”
A Trump presidency “could mean the wholesale dismantling of every step taken since the financial crisis to make the financial system safer and fairer. It could mean exposing every American to greater risks from another financial crisis and to abuses from financial charlatans.”
Barr details the policies that President Obama has implemented and describes the potential impact deregulation could have on retirement savers, retirees, and others.
However, he says, we can join together to make sure these protections remain intact. “Now more than ever, it is up to us.”
Michael S. Barr is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, a professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution. He served from 2009-2010 as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.