“Told ya Daddy Trump would take care of things.”
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Remember the financial crisis? That little economic catastrophe that led to the Great Recession, considered the worst period of economic decline since the Great Depression? Some people believe its anniversary should be celebrated in mid-March, to mark the day in 2008 that investment bank Bear Stearns went down for the dirt nap. Others think it’s September 15, with the passing of Lehman Brothers. A small contingent likes to pop the bubbly on September 16, to commemorate the day the government ponied up $85 billion to keep insurer A.I.G. from going under (before going on to provide a total of $182.3 billion in bailout funds). Whatever month or day they choose to observe the anniversary, most people would agree that we’re coming up on the 10th—as in, it’s been approximately a decade since everything went to hell. And to celebrate the occasion, the Trump administration has planned something it’s pretty sure everyone is going to be talking about for years. No, it’s not Eric and Donny Jr. dressing up in rags to perform an offensive skit in which they pretend to be hobos who lost their homes during the crash, though in theory there’s still time for that. Instead, it’s taking a metaphorical ax to the agency designed, in the wake of the crisis, to spot financial disasters on the horizon. Fun, right?!
Reuters reports that on Wednesday, the administration informed 40 employees in the Office of Financial Research that they will lose their jobs as part of a “broader reorganization” of the unit that was created by Dodd-Frank in 2010. While the O.F.R. has been under attack by Republicans for years, it wasn’t until Donald “We’re gonna slash regulations like nobody’s business” Trump entered the White House that the dream of kneecapping an agency that analyzes market trends to flag financial risks became a reality. Of course, Wednesday’s move—along with the broader one to cut the O.F.R.’s budget by 25 percent—isn’t being billed as demolition so much as a “reshaping.“ In a statement, the Treasury said it is “working to make O.F.R. a more efficient organization with a stronger workforce and culture to better execute on the mission.”
That statement might be more believable—still not completely believable, but more—if the administration hadn’t nominated Dino Falaschetti to run the bureau. Falaschetti, it should be noted, appears to be educated in the Mick Mulvaney school of thought, which says rather than going to the trouble of legislating these financial-crisis-era agencies out of existence, one should simply burn them to the ground from the inside. As Esquire notes, Falaschetti worked for the Koch-funded think tank the Mercatus Center, and currently serves as the chief economist for Representative Jeb Hensarling, who wants to see the Office of Financial Research buried in a shallow grave, right next to the corpse of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Anyway, happy Fi-Cri anniversary! What does everyone think the next crash should be called?