Statement by Josh Bivens, Director of Research
Economic Policy Institute | June 08, 2017
WASHINGTON – Today’s passage of the Financial CHOICE Act is a terrible decision by the House of Representatives. If it were to be passed by the Senate and become law, this bill would make future financial crises more likely and more damaging. It would strip away protections against American households being swindled again by the worst actors in the financial sector. It would roll back the sorely needed “fiduciary rule” that requires financial advisers act in the best interest of their clients rather than lining their pockets with the hard-earned savings of the people who turned to those very financial professionals for help with their retirement investments. Finally, it would lead to a less transparent and less democratically accountable Federal Reserve, and would mandate the Fed follow policy rules that would predictably lead to higher unemployment and less ability to fight deep recessions. It’s hard to imagine a bill that could do more broad-based damage to the future economic security of America’s working families.
The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington D.C. think tank, was created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Today, with global competition expanding, wage inequality rising, and the methods and nature of work changing in fundamental ways, it is as crucial as ever that people who work for a living have a voice in the economic discourse.
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