Julie Su’s Fiduciary Double Standard
ERISA imposes a fiduciary duty on private pension funds to manage their assets in the best financial interests of those who are counting on the funds to retire, not the interests of those managing the assets. Squeezing pension funds to lean on companies to make it easier for employees to unionize doesn’t appear to be consistent with fiduciary responsibility.
More conflict.
“Translation: The Administration wants private and government pension funds to pressure companies to surrender to unions. The political lever it wants to use is private equity. Government pension funds have piled into private equity as they chase higher returns to cover growing benefit liabilities. They now account for 31% of private-equity investors.”
Trump Promised To 'Drain the Swamp.' He Did the Opposite.
Is the growth in the administrative state past the point of no return?
“"He made government bigger," Economist Ed Stringham says in my new video. 'That's going in the wrong direction. Looking through a list of agencies, every single one I could see, there were more employees after his presidency than before."
“Trump added almost 2 million jobs to the federal workforce.”
Biden’s latest vehicle regulation will ban most new gas cars by 2032
How many people in America are aware of these regulations? How sustainable are they?
The best regulations obtain buy-in and acceptance. If you have to do something in secret, then it might not be the best play.
“EPA knows it doesn’t have the authority to ban new gas cars outright. So instead, what the agency has done is set tailpipe emissions “standards” that no existing gas, diesel, or traditional hybrid vehicles can meet. EPA admits in its own regulatory scenario forecasts that automakers will likely have to abandon the production of most traditional internal combustion engine vehicles by 2032 to comply with the new policy.
“In fact, a look at EPA’s fleetwide standard for 2032 suggests that automakers would have to sell at least three EVs that year to be able to sell a single gas pickup truck. That’s a problem because gas pickup trucks are the most popular vehicles sold in America, by far, and EVs account for less than 8% of sales. Do the math. If not enough EVs sell, new gas cars could get rationed. In any normal sense of the word, this policy amounts to a ban.”
Federal bureaucracy helping Biden’s reelection campaign
Paper alleges that the federal bureaucracy is politically aligned with one party in order to advance their own interests.
“We were shocked by what we found. A who’s who of far-left groups — the American Civil Liberties Union, the Demos think tank, the Sentencing Project, the League of Women Voters and beyond — gave the Biden administration a blueprint for turning the bureaucracy into a powerful reelection tool. The groups told agencies how to set up voter infrastructure in jails and prisons, how to make voter registration mandatory at naturalization ceremonies, and how to turn all agencies that provide public assistance into get-out-the-vote machines.
“DOJ even documented an immigration group supporting voter registration efforts for noncitizens. And the bureaucracy was told to help federal employees “take the day off” come Election Day and help election workers. That’s nearly 3 million workers — the majority of them liberal Democrats. As one leftist group said in the White House meeting, voter registration is “just the first hurdle.” After that, the goal is turning out voters and ultimately controlling the outcome of the election.”
Big Tech regulatory crackdown spreads to Asia and Australia
Global regulators target US technology companies.
“Japan, South Korea, and Australia are tightening rules to rein in the market power of big tech groups, posing fresh regulatory challenges for Apple and Google following a similar crackdown in the EU and US.”
SAUNDERS: After fighting off hackers, MGM takes on federal bureaucracy
Regulatory discretion is just as arbitrary as it sounds. FTC goes after one casino company but not another after a cyberattack in which the victim cooperated with federal authorities. This may have something to do with the fact that FTC Chair Khan was checking into the MGM during the attack, inconveniencing her.
“Alas, the feds did something you wouldn’t want your government to do. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into MGM — the victim of the cyberattack — and demanded that MGM, which suffered an estimated $100 million loss from the hack, provide information about the breach.
“In a saner world, the regulatory agency’s move would be slammed as blaming the victim. In this world, MGM filed a lawsuit against the FTC in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the investigation.
“The FTC can maintain that it is working to protect consumers, whose data was breached during the cyberattack. Except that it appears the agency is not investigating MGM competitors, such as Caesars Entertainment, which was hacked last summer but paid a ransom to prevent system outages and the release of company data.”
Coinbase Pushes for Clearer Crypto Regulation, SEC Says No
Coinbase, in arguing for a crypto-specific regulatory regime instead of an extension of existing securities regulations, argues that the SEC has been inconsistent.
“Coinbase further bolsters its case by highlighting the SEC’s seemingly contradictory approach in other ongoing legal battles, such as the lawsuit against Ripple Labs. This perceived inconsistency further fuels their argument for a more transparent and definitive regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry.”
Why is DHS keeping ‘disinformation’ regulation docs secret?
An opaque bureaucracy is a dangerous bureaucracy.
“Thus far, DHS has refused to provide unredacted versions of documents that outline its purported authorities to regulate disinformation. Nor will the agency release more information about its work on misinformation related to “irregular migration” and “Ukraine” before the board was disbanded in August 2022.
“So, taxpayers are unable to find out what legal authority DHS is exercising, and they aren’t allowed to learn about the work being done with their tax dollars. Does this sound like a dystopian novel yet?”
Trump-appointed judge halts Biden administration credit card late fee cap
More potential conflict on the regulatory front.
“The lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was led by the US Chamber of Commerce. They alleged, along with other banking organizations, that the rule, finalized in early March, was in violation of several federal acts.
“CFPB’s rule, which was planned to be active on Tuesday, was designed to save more than $10 billion in late fees annually by dropping the amount from $32 to $8, according to CFPB. The average saving would sit at $220 per year and would affect over 45 million who were hit with late fees, according to the agency.
““This ruling is a major win for responsible consumers who pay their credit card bills on time and businesses that want to provide affordable credit,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center Counsel Maria Monaghan said in a statement.“
The Paradox of Efficiency: Digitalization Fosters Bureaucracy Instead of Curbing It
Digitization, or optimization more broadly, leads to an explosion of new rules designed to address every sub-optimal edge case. With more rules comes more bureaucracy.
“Despite promises that digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) would streamline efficiency and cut down on bureaucratic processes, the reality is proving to be quite the opposite. The integration of AI has not led to a reduction in bureaucracy but rather an escalation in monitoring activities and, as a result, even greater bureaucratic growth.”