Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton jumped into the fiduciary fray on Monday, outlining her plan to in The New York Times to “rein in Wall Street.”
Arguing that republicans are attempting to “roll back common-sense efforts to prevent conflicts of interest by financial managers,” the former secretary of state made clear she backs the DOL’s fiduciary proposal favored by the Obama Administration.
Beginning with a recap of the financial crisis and its aftermath, Clinton said, “Seven years ago, the financial crisis sent our economy into a tailspin. Over five million people lost their homes. Nearly nine million lost their jobs. Nearly $13 trillion in household wealth was wiped out.
“Under President Obama, our economy has come a long way back. Our businesses have created more than 13 million jobs,” she added. “People’s savings are being restored. And we have tough new rules on the books, including the Dodd-Frank Act, that protect consumers and curb recklessness on Wall Street.”
Claiming that “not everyone sees it as a good thing,” Clinton describes what she says are GOP efforts to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, oppose the DOL fiduciary rule and “undo constraints on risk at some of the largest and most complex financial institutions.”
Her solution is a three-point plan: rein in major financial institutions by imposing a new risk fee on dozens of the biggest banks and strengthening the Volker Rule; appoint tough, independent regulators and ensure that both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are independently funded, and; seek to extend the statute of limitations for major financial crimes to 10 years from five and enhance rewards for whistle-blowers.
Clinton, who famously made $100,000 trading cattle futures from an initial $1,000 investment concluded that, “Rather than pursuing the kind of high-stakes speculation that devastated our economy before, Wall Street should focus on building an economy that creates good-paying jobs, rising incomes and sound investments so that more families can achieve the security of a middle-class life.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
