All of Donald Trump’s packaged campaign promises were wrapped in a mostly red, white and blue ribbon slogan: Make America Great Again.
Since taking office, President Trump has been unwrapping those promises in rapid-fire succession.
Last Friday, as part of his deregulation platform, the President signed an executive order calling for the Treasury Department to review the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, a 2300-page law that mandated extensive reforms of the financial industry.
Unfortunately, Making America Great Again has nothing to do with making great big banks bigger and more dangerous again.
When it comes to financial deregulation, we need to separate fake news about banks being held back from lending from the truth about their power, profits and potential to sink America again.
Here’s what you need to know…
The Truth About the Big Banks’ Ability to Lend
After signing the executive order on February 3, 2017, the President met with a group of business executives, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon and BlackRock Inc. CEO Laurence Fink.
Here’s what President Trump said at the meeting:
We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank, because frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine, that had nice businesses, they just can’t borrow money. because the banks just won’t let them borrow because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.
While I’m an advocate for smart deregulation and I support the new president, it’s wrong to not call out obviously fake news.
Because here’s the thing – America’s big banks are lending. They’ve all increased their loan books significantly. In fact, according to the Federal Reserve, the biggest banks have increased core lending 6% annually since 2013. Commercial loans outstanding in 2016 stood at a record $9.1 trillion.
Just last year, JPMorgan grew its loan books by 10% and Wells Fargo increased loans 5.6%.
