The presidential candidate is proposing tough financial regulations that seem at odds with his own previous positions
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has proposed merging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and strengthening financial regulations that have been relaxed under the Trump administration.
The proposals were part of a series of proposed regulations that the former New York City mayor released Tuesday, according to a Politico report. The proposals are a hard left turn for the billionaire, who has long had close ties to Wall Street.
Fannie Mae and Freddie were taken into conservatorship after the 2008 financial meltdown left them on the brink of collapse, but the Trump administration has been taking steps to release them from government control. Bloomberg’s plan calls for merging Fannie and Freddie into one agency that is fully government-owned.
Bloomberg also called for strengthening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has relaxed its regulatory role under the current administration, and tightening regulations on nonbank financial institutions like mortgage and insurance companies, Politico reported.
“The financial system isn’t working the way it should for most Americans,” Bloomberg said in a news release. “The stock market is at an all-time high, but almost all of the gains are going to a small number of people, and our economy is still vulnerable to another shock like the 2008 financial crisis that devastated families and communities all over the country.”
Bloomberg’s proposals are sharply at odds with his own previous positions on financial regulation. In 2014, he said that the Dodd-Frank Act was an example of “stupid laws” that big business would ultimately ignore. He also said that many of the fines on big banks in the wake of the financial crisis had been too harsh.
However, Bloomberg is facing off in the Democratic primaries against candidates with far more progressive bona fides than him, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and current frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), both of whom have gained recognition for their harsh criticism of the finance industry.
