Fight Fascism and Corruption - Another Economic Crash?
Charlie Cooper
Trump Administration Guts Bank Regulation
We may soon be facing another economic crash caused by financial speculation and skullduggery. Paul Krugman explains:
“The clear lesson of 2008 is that effective financial regulation is essential. For three generations [from 1937-2000] after the great bank runs of 1930-31, America avoided “systemic” banking crises — crises that threaten the whole financial system, as opposed to individual institutions. This era . . . was the result of New-Deal-era protections — especially deposit insurance — and regulations that limited banks’ risk-taking.”
Now, bank supervision is being drastically cut back. “In June, Michelle Bowman, a Trump appointee, became the Fed’s vice-chair of supervision.” She is cutting staff, changing regulations to allow riskier investments with depositors’ money, and stifling bank examiners who see risky behavior.
Meanwhile, the crypto industry is being allowed new privileges without appropriate regulations or oversight to rein in risk. Cryptocurrency is often used to launder money for criminal enterprises – be they drug cartels or rogue corporations. Some of the biggest crypto issuers and traders have ties to the Trump administration.
Which is Worse?
Larry Summers sought Jeffrey Epstein’s advice on how to get a grad student he was mentoring into bed with him. He is now banned for life from the American Economic Association and may lose his tenure at Harvard. This article in The American Prospect argues that his neoliberal (pro-billionaire) economic advice over the decades did more harm to society. For example, he guided President Clinton and Congress to “reform” the banking and financial laws in ways that led directly to the Great Recession of 2008. According to The Atlantic, Summers “helped author a series of ultimately disastrous or wrongheaded policies, from his big deregulatory moves as a Clinton administration apparatchik to his too-tepid response to the Great Recession as Obama's chief economic adviser.”
Corbin Trent Blueprint for Defeating MAGA at the Polls
Between 1935 and the 1980s, the United States enacted the Social Security program, regulated the banks, electrified the country, built 300,000 aircraft in about 6 years during WW II, and erected the Interstate Highway system. In 1939 alone, 50,000 public housing units were constructed. Today, we have lost much of our manufacturing infrastructure and, with it, the knowledge base among workers. It seems that we cannot build transit or housing, nor can we produce enough medical professionals or engineers. Union membership has fallen drastically. Some people say it’s liberal regulations that have halted our progress, but there is a stronger case to say that monopoly capitalism and the neoliberalism of both political parties have strangled our economy.
Corbin Trent was a director of Justice Democrats, which made a big splash in 2018 by electing AOC, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar. He was communications director for AOC’s initial campaign. Inspired by the New Deal and the post-WW II rise of the middle class, he has been developing a political strategy based on his critique of de-unionization, off-shoring, the economic plunder of the U.S. working class by giant corporations, and control of the Democratic Party by big donors. He calls for taking over Democratic Party and using its infrastructure to propel a working-class movement that transforms politics and the economy.
He proposes 3 pillars of a new movement:
Restore affordability through public-private competition to solve the housing shortage, expand the capacity of the health system, and build modern infrastructure. Where monopolies seek to restrict supply, governments at all levels would increase supply – for example, through municipally-owned utilities.
Restore shared accountability by cracking down on elite crime, ending the two-tiered justice system, and radical transparency. Cut red tape to ensure that governments can build as they did during the New Deal and WW II.
Restore free elections by eliminating gerrymandering and dark money. Deliver economic security to all. Stop endless overseas military adventures by, for example, cutting off military aid to Israel.
He proposes that candidates pledge to support this agenda and stick together in Congress once elected. Read the proposal.
Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Favors Trump
The Brennan Center has been tracking how the Supreme Court handles cases involving the Trump Administration. “The Court is now using the shadow docket at an unprecedented rate for lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s most controversial actions.” The shadow docket was formerly used rarely and for temporary orders.
Trump has won 19 out of 23 cases that the Supreme Court has decided on the shadow docket and those opposing the Administration have won 4 cases. These are cases where the Administration is a party to the case. Many of these cases can be decided later if the Supreme Court decides to take them up for full argument and decision. None establishes a precedent or sets a new Constitutional interpretation. By using the shadow docket, the Court can avoid ruling that Trump’s unconstitutional actions are constitutional while letting him get his way via a temporary ruling.
Trump won:
The State Department can refuse to allow passport applicants to obtain a passport that reflects their gender identity.
The Department of Homeland Security can terminate a portion of the Temporary Protected Status designations relating to Venezuelan nationals.
The Government needn’t obligate foreign aid funds that were previously appropriated by Congress. This seems to allow impoundment, which most Constitutional scholars view as an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s budget authority.
The president can terminate a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause.
Federal officers can conduct investigative stops in Southern California based on “apparent race or ethnicity,” the use of Spanish or accented English, presence at a location where undocumented immigrants “are known to gather,” or working at certain jobs such as landscaping or construction.
The National Institutes of Health can terminate grants for ongoing research projects.
The Department of Education can fire its employees as part of a reduction in workforce plan.
The Trump administration can reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Lower court judges cannot issue nationwide injunctions that barred the federal government from enforcing its executive order ending birthright citizenship.
The Department of Homeland Security can remove noncitizens to “third countries” (or countries not listed on their removal orders).
Members of the Department of Government Efficiency could access records systems at the Social Security Administration.
The secretary of Homeland Security can conduct en masse revocation of parole for approximately half a million noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela without providing case-by-case consideration for each person.
The president can terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board without cause.
The Department of Defense can terminate transgender service members.
The federal government is not required to reinstate 16,000 employees who had been terminated
The federal government could deport the named plaintiffs under the Alien Enemies Act
The federal government need not reinstate millions of dollars in federal grants previously appropriated by Congress. (Impoundment)
Trump lost and the federal government was required to:
Provide access to certain DOGE materials to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) under the Freedom of Information Act.
Not remove a group of Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act.
“[F]acilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Pay nearly $2 billion to entities for already completed contracted work.
Warner Bros. Will Be Drowning in Debt While Execs Cash Out
Why should Warner Bros merge with anyone when its revenue stream and creative success are so strong? It has already issued more than $50 billion in debt and either of the proposed deals will double that. These consolidation deals create a huge pay day for executives and Wall Street operators. They are good at manipulating the news to make mergers sound inevitable.
The American Prospect: “A Netflix deal, liberals believe, at least doesn’t put CNN and CBS under the thumb of Trump allies. To conservatives, that’s the promise of a Paramount deal. And in the Trump era of politicization of antitrust, we hear about secret meetings between the president and Netflix or Paramount executives, and gauge our preferences accordingly.
“Yet this blinkered way of thinking about the economy, this idea that we simply must tolerate more Hollywood consolidation, and the best we can hope for is something that aligns in some way with our political beliefs, is completely wrong. Functionally it’s wrong, because state attorneys general can choose to use the Clayton Act to challenge either of these mergers, and they would have good precedent to block this attempt at monopolization. What the Trump administration wants is immaterial to the opportunity state AGs have to scrutinize either a Netflix or Warner Bros. deal.”
Local Notes
Alsobrooks and Van Hollen co-sponsor “Back from the Brink” resolution
Mainstream politicians and media pay no attention to the risk of accidental – much less intentional – nuclear war. But it may be an even greater threat to civilization than climate change. Because of active work by Maryland citizens in the Prevent Nuclear War coalition, Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen have both signed onto S.Res.323 Back front the Brink.
Work with other nations to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear arsenals
Work with other nations to renounce first use of nuclear weapons
Eliminate sole authority of the President alone to initiate a nuclear strike
Take weapons off “hair-trigger alert” status in order to reduce the chance of accidental launch
Cancel plans to spend trillions of dollars modernizing the nuclear arsenal.
Van Hollen joins Sanders, Warren, and others in “Fight Club”
Common Dreams: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have formed an electoral alliance to “embrace candidates willing to challenge entrenched corporate interests, fiercely oppose the Trump Administration, and defy their own party’s orthodoxy.” Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen joined the group.
Kweisi Mfume supports continuing arms shipments to Israel
After 15 months of trying, I was able to get a Zoom meeting with my representative in Congress, Kweisi Mfume, (District 7) to urge him to support H.R. 3565, the Block the Bombs bill. Mfume tightly limited the attendance to one representative for each of four organizations: Council on American-Islamic Relations, IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Peace Action (which I represented). Rep. Mfume has taken a number of positive actions to protest Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. He cosponsored a bill to restore U.S. funding to UNWRA, the largest and most competent relief organization for Palestinians, boycotted Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, and signed a number of Congressional letters. Peace Action constituents in District 7 believe, however, that blocking military aid to Israel is the single most effective way to help end the genocide in Gaza and prevent the annexation of the West Bank.
H.R. 3565 would prevent the shipment of 7 types of offensive weapons to Israel until Congress enacts another bill allowing their shipment. Rep. Mfume posed a hypothetical situation in which Israel is attacked and might need one or more of these classes of weapons to defend itself, and he believes the requirement to pass a new law would impose an unacceptable delay on U.S. military aid to Israel. By prioritizing a hypothetical threat to Israel over ending the ongoing genocide in Gaza – which has been slowed but not ended by the current “ceasefire,” Mfume is implicitly putting Israeli lives above Palestinian lives.
I will soon appear in a video with Baltimore City Councilperson Mark Conway, who has announced he is running against Mfume in the 2026 Democratic Primary. I spoke only for myself to thank Conway for endorsing the Block the Bombs bill. Although I support Conway’s action regarding the Block the Bombs bill, I will continue to evaluate whether I should endorse him in the election.
Conway, left, Mfume right. Photos supplied by the candidates to Maryland Matters
How do I contact my representative?
Members of Congress are sensitive to messages from constituents. From my conversations with staff aides recently, it is very clear that public opinion is shifting against continuation of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Step 1: Click here to find the congressional district for your address
Step 2: Give your name and address and a very brief message tailored for your representative as indicated in the bullets above. If you are Jewish, it’s good to mention that. Voicemail is fine.