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Presidential Issues: Finance & Banking

Finance & Banking

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Clinton’s Wall Street attack would only hurt you and me

December 8, 2015

By Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Memo to Wall Street: Hillary Clinton attacks you in the New York Times not because you did anything wrong. No, it is simply early December, and she is reminding you to make your 2015 contribution. It is time to pony up some big bucks to her favorite charity. Look on the bright side: It is tax-deductible.

Banks should not waste their time reading through the details of the attack. Democratic presidential candidate Clinton mentions what she likes: more regulation, higher taxes on the financial sector and fines that cut into executives’ bonuses. She also mentions whom she does not like: Republicans.

No matter that reining in Wall Street, as Clinton says she wants to do, would not help Main Street, where most Americans are located. Main Street borrows money from Wall Street. When Wall Street doesn’t lend, Main Street doesn’t expand.

Rather than strengthening the Volcker Rule and imposing more bank regulation, as Clinton suggests, a simpler plan would be to expand the capital requirements for banks and make them more transparent.

Read the full article at MarketWatch: Clinton’s Wall Street attack would only hurt you and me