Mirror
What if we had transparent government?
The broader piece suggests that Loper will unleash a tidal wave of litigation.
Newsflash: interest groups have been pursuing this tactic of death-by-lawsuit for decades.
Lighten up, Francis.
‘Don’t want scared bureaucrats who triple-check everything and write impossibly burdensome memos? Do something about the courts.’
Businesses Get a Reprieve From a Draconian Law
Anti-money laundering compliance costs are more than one thousand times the cost of recovered funds.
That is a complete sentence.
‘The burdens are staggering, even by the government’s accounting. FinCEN projects that more than 32 million entities would have to file reports in the first year, with an additional five million in each subsequent year. Compliance costs in the first year alone will be about $22.7 billion, FinCEN estimates. The utter chaos in the run-up to the Jan. 1 filing deadline suggests the real costs may be far higher, as every contractor, gasoline station and homeowners’ association discovered it needed to hire professionals to identify its “beneficial owners” and get the details right. As FinCEN helpfully notes, violations of the reporting requirement may incur civil penalties of up to $591 a day and even criminal penalties.
‘It is a fluke that the CTA became law. The proposal advanced only when supporters managed to sneak it into a must-pass budget bill enacted over then-President Trump’s veto in 2021. It was touted as an anti-money-laundering measure, but its reporting mandate may set a new low in effectiveness for a field already infamous as the world’s least effective policy experiment. Overall, anti-money-laundering compliance costs outweigh intercepted funds by 1,000 to 1, according to economist Ronald Pol. Whereas other measures attempt to target malefactors by homing in on red flags, the CTA sweeps in everyone—except major industries like finance that lobbied for exemptions.’
Debanking and the Return of Operation Choke Point
Ask for tons of information without a warrant. Use data analysis to compile complex profiles of everyone, lawbreaker or not. Use moral suasion to compel the banks to deprive lawful citizens of services in politically disfavored fields of endeavor.
This is a social credit system.
‘The overbreadth in bank reporting is a plus for the government, since it gives the Federal Bureau of Investigation a trove of reports to scour without a warrant. The more info it has on more bank customers, the better, even if most haven’t committed a crime. Regulators prohibit banks from notifying customers if they have filed a SAR.
‘“Once multiple SARs have been filed, examiners generally expect the account to be closed,” the Bank Policy Institute explains. Examiners may also covertly require banks to designate certain accounts as “high risk.” Such designations impose hefty compliance burdens that effectively force banks to close accounts. The group adds that “failing to close an account or terminate a customer relationship with high illicit finance risk, even only with the benefit of hindsight, has led to penalties of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars against banks.”
‘This is how the Obama administration cut off banking access to politically disfavored businesses such as firearm dealers, payday lenders and pawn shops in its Operation Choke Point. The Justice Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. between 2013 and 2017 identified certain industries as high-risk and then pressured banks to terminate their accounts.’
The Federal Government Is Making Homelessness Worse
Federal financial assistance to states leading to failed outcomes is one place DOGE could target. Will target.
‘But the federal role in public disorder is not trivial. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) distributes billions annually in homelessness funding. There are two problems with how that’s now done. First, too much of the funding bypasses state governments, which are increasingly the real centers of action on homelessness. Second, HUD is overly prescriptive in demanding conformity with the “Housing First” philosophy of rental assistance with no program requirements and no time limits. Congress could fix both these problems by restructuring federal homeless assistance into a block grant sent to state governments.’
There Are Many Ways to Fix Bank Regulation—Here’s a Start
Cato goes into detail about what bank regulatory reform might look like.
‘As Cato’s new report to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) explains, US financial markets have too many regulations and too many regulators. Many of the regulations protect incumbent firms, exacerbate instability, and inflate costs. Many of the regulators possess redundant authority.
‘There’s a good case to be made for scrapping pretty much the whole framework. But elected officials can make many important improvements without doing anything so controversial as a complete reboot. This post offers a few ideas for improving things on the banking side.’
California’s EV Mandate on Trial
Why does California get to determine national policy, in effect?
‘What fortuitous timing. As the Biden Administration prepares to green-light an extension of California’s electric-vehicle mandate, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to the rule (Diamond Alternative Energy LLC v. EPA).
‘The Clean Air Act bars states from regulating vehicle emissions, but it allows the Environmental Protection Agency to grant California a waiver to enforce its own rules “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” Congress created the California carve-out because its geography and climate can exacerbate smog.’
How Congress Can Ensure DOGE Isn’t Another Failed Promise
Reagan’s success in base closures may be an example to DOGE.
‘The BRAC process was designed to limit Congress’s involvement in base-closure decisions. Lawmakers appointed an outside committee to draft the list of potential closures, which was then sent to the Secretary of Defense, who, in turn, presented a final list to Congress. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 and its later amendments required Congress to make an up-or-down decision on the entire package of cuts, and would automatically enact the commission’s recommendations, unless both houses of Congress issued a joint statement of disapproval within 45 days. This established what the Congressional Research Service dubbed a “fast track” legislative process.’
Drones and the Cost of Lost Trust
Institutions are built on trust and trust is in short supply in a post-Pandemic world.
‘The loss of public trust in U.S. institutions is well-chronicled, and for an example of its cost consider the national mini-panic over unidentified aerial objects. No one in America seems to believe what anyone in authority says about them, and unproven claims are filling the vacuum.’
Trump Hates the ‘Deep State.’ But He Also Needs It.
This OpEd appeared in the New York Times. Wow.
‘Critics have objected that such streamlining would erode the political neutrality of the federal bureaucracy. But there is good reason to regard that neutrality as a fantasy. In 2024, Kamala Harris received 100 percent of donations to the two major presidential campaigns made by employees of the Education Department, 99 percent of those made by employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, 97 percent from the Energy Department and 96 percent from the Commerce Department, according to data compiled by the publication Government Executive. (Broadly similar figures were reported in 2020 and 2016.) By replacing civil servants with political appointees, Mr. Trump would engage in a rebalancing, bringing the ideology of the bureaucracy closer to the views of the country that elected him.’