WHY A CORPORATE CRACKDOWN?
Since early 2022, we at Revolving Door Project have been calling for a Corporate Crackdown—that is, a coordinated executive branch effort to crack down on corporate wrongdoing using regulations already on the books, picking visible fights with corporate villains who are extracting money from the masses and making the planet unlivable.
As we’ve argued, it would be both good governance and good politics for the Biden administration to prioritize a Corporate Crackdown. It should be the role of the government, and particularly public servants in the executive branch, to protect the public against corporate abuses—that is the responsibility they have been entrusted with in a democratic society.
Focusing on a Corporate Crackdown is also good politics. People know that corporations and the wealthy are taking advantage of them without being held accountable. Our polling research, along with numerous recent polls by other outlets, shows that a majority of US voters across party lines support more corporate enforcement actions by the Biden administration, and believe corporations and the wealthy get away with wrongdoing too often.
Whether it’s Big Pharma lining their pockets by hiking prescription drug prices, corporate landlords raising rents in the midst of a housing crisis, or fossil fuel companies price-gouging at the fuel pump while polluting and driving climate catastrophes with impunity, the impacts of corporate wrongdoing are hitting us every day, in every aspect of our lives, and people are fed up. The admirable campaign against junk fees is a terrific opening move in such a campaign–but it isn’t a complete campaign on its own.
The Biden administration must seize on this widespread anger and frustration by placing itself firmly on the side of workers and regular people, in clear opposition to the far too numerous bad actors among the corporate class.
Our past Corporate Crackdown efforts include:
- Conducting polling, which demonstrated broad, bipartisan belief that corporations and the wealthy get away with breaking the law unpunished, and high levels of support for cracking down on this wrongdoing;
- Issuing reports, prominently our Climate Corporate Crackdown report, that outline what a whole of government approach to using existing regulation to interrupt corporate misdeeds would look like; and
- Publishing regular newsletters and pieces in other outlets pointing out opportunities for the executive branch to take action in mitigating the impact of corporate exploitation on the public.
Follow upcoming work in our Corporate Crackdown portfolio here. We bring this lens to core areas of Revolving Door Project’s work, including tracking corporate influence over climate policy, financial regulation, and law enforcement at the Department of Justice, and scrutinizing Biden and his appointees’ messaging and priorities heading into election season.
KEY WORK AREAS
CLIMATE JUSTICE. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, among others agencies, must use existing protections to hold oil and gas companies accountable when they cause spills, leaks, and otherwise pollute our water and air, while contributing to catastrophic climate change.
FINANCIAL REGULATION. The SEC, CFTC, CFPB, and FTC, among other federal units, must avoid being taken in by financial institutions’ insistence that lifelong bankers and corporate executives have supernatural levels of expertise and are above reproach. Whether it’s holding crypto grifters accountable for conning consumers or shaming companies who skirt safety regulations relevant to their products, these agencies must live up to their mandate in defending the public from extractive, profit-hungry corporations.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. As white-collar law enforcement has fallen to record lows, we are calling on the law enforcement arm of the federal government to step up to the challenge of going after powerful law-breakers. The Justice Department has enormous power to hold elites accountable under both civil and criminal law. It’s about time that the Justice Department prioritize society’s most powerful breakers of laws, be the laws civil or criminal.
April 18, 2024
Advocacy Groups Comment On Biden Administration Rule To Combat Money Laundering In The Real Estate Sector
The Revolving Door Project joined Transparency International and other advocacy groups to provide comments on the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (“FinCEN”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to combat and deter money laundering in the U.S. residential real estate sector by increasing transparency.
April 17, 2024 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
The FAA and Flights of Financial Folly
Boeing Won’t Self Regulate; We Can’t Keep Trusting Them To
April 10, 2024
Despite Populist Appeals to the Unfair Impact of Student Debt, Biden Still Won’t Name a Villain
On Monday, President Biden presented a new student loan debt relief plan at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin, as surrogates (Vice President Harris and Education Secretary Cardona) simultaneously spoke about the plan in other battleground states.
April 05, 2024
Maybe Financial Regulators Shouldn’t See The Best In Everyone
Last Friday, former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair decided to offer her two cents on the broader conversation surrounding the recent sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried . Her takeaway from SBF’s trial and conviction on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy? We need financial literacy classes for children.
April 03, 2024 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Who’s Afraid of the “Deep State”?
Show me a politician rabble-rousing about “unelected bureaucrats” running the country, and I’ll show you someone who wants those bureaucrats to be serving their interests, not the country’s. Show me a company crying foul about government overreach, and I’ll show you a company trying to get away with—in some cases, literally—murder.
March 27, 2024
A Win For PFAS And A Loss For The IRS
We focus on the under the radar impacts of corporate control of the Fifth Circuit and Congressional Republicans.
March 25, 2024 | Slate
Why Biden Should Pardon the IRS Whistleblower Who Leaked Trump’s Taxes
Biden can make billionaire corruption a defining issue of the 2024 presidential race.
March 20, 2024
The Next Frontier Of Corporate Polluting: Hydrogen
The corporate polluters are at it again with a new push for “clean energy”—and against government safeguards to ensure that it’s clean.
March 05, 2024
Henry Burke Jeff Hauser Andrea Beaty
Press Release Anti-MonopolyCorporate CrackdownDepartment of Justice
The Revolving Door Project Commends Price “Strike Force,” Calls On Biden Administration To Continue Cracking Down On Corporate Greed
Price Gouging Has Been Enabled Through Decades Of Unchecked Corporate Consolidation. The Strike Force Will Protect Consumers From Unfair Pricing And Unbridled Corporate Power.
February 28, 2024
Government Shutdown Threats Allow GOP to Signal to Corporate Cronies It’s Open Season on Consumers
We’re staring down a familiar deadline this week: On Friday, if Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill, we’ll enter a partial government shutdown. And if they pass a short term continuing resolution… we’ll have just kicked the can a few weeks down the increasingly potholed (due to inadequate maintenance) road.
February 22, 2024
OpenAI Has A New Tool For Generating Video. When Will They Generate Some Corporate Governance?
Since the tumultuous departure and immediate return of Sam Altman, the company has been headed by an anemic board of three, of which one is ready to depart. When will the company open up to basic corporate oversight?
February 15, 2024
Julian Scoffield Vishal Shankar Ethan Cook
Newsletter Corporate CrackdownDepartment of JusticeExecutive BranchHousing
An RDP Love Letter To Picking Fights and Good Punditry
Cracking down on corporate abuses is what government should be for.
February 07, 2024
The East Palestine Disaster One Year Later
Biden has yet to visit East Palestine but is expected to do so this month. When he does, he should denounce Norfolk Southern’s avarice from the site of the train wreck.
January 17, 2024
The Environmental Protection Agency Is Deferring to Louisiana on Environmental Protection. What Could Go Wrong?
In a recent delegation of power over climate regulation, Biden’s executive branch is denying its power to make an impact on issues affecting constituents’ everyday lives.
January 10, 2024
Glossary of Useful Federal Budget Terms
Learning about the federal government’s budget process can be daunting. Here are a few key terms to help better understand of the federal budget process as of late.