Washington, D.C. — Andy Green, Managing Director of Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement today after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Jay Clayton as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.
If there was any doubt that President-elect Trump is looking out for Wall Street instead of the little guy, it has been removed with his nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as SEC chair. As a partner at a white-shoe Wall Street law firm, Clayton has a long history of representing bankers and multinational financiers and worked intimately on financial crisis-related mergers and acquisitions involving many of the same companies whose lending and trading practices caused the crisis. As if that isn’t enough, Clayton has represented multiple financial institutions in mortgage-backed securities settlements with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SEC’s mission is to protect investors and maintain fair markets. Trump may claim that his Wall Street buddies should be in charge because they know the system better than anyone, but it is clear from Clayton’s resume whose side he is on. Any investor—from a family with a 401(k) to the manager of a pension fund—should be alarmed that someone so clearly aligned with bankers would head the SEC. This nomination is only good news for the “make Wall Street great again” crowd.
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