An Incredibly Misguided Nomination for Comptroller of the Currency

Published in Real Clear Markets:

The Biden administration has certainly made the most misguided nomination for Comptroller of the Currency in history with its nominee, Saule Omarova. Professor Omarova has published proposals displaying deep ideological commitments which make her obviously unacceptable for this key responsibility in the banking system. Even after this has become apparent, the Biden administration has very surprisingly not withdrawn her name and a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the nomination has been scheduled for this week, November 18.

Concerning this hearing, every Democratic senator on the Banking Committee should be asked in public:

- Do you subscribe to the proposals published by Professor Omarova?  

- Do you support taking all deposits away from private banks?   

- Do you support making the Federal Reserve in charge of "economy-wide credit allocation"? 

- Do you support making the Federal Reserve a deposit monopoly?  

- Do you support having the New York Federal Reserve Bank short investments it [somehow] decides are too expensive and buy to boost the price of investments it [somehow] decides are too cheap?  

- Do you support giving the government seats on privately owned companies' boards of directors, with the government having "disproportionate voting power"?  

All these remarkably unwise and naive proposals are explicitly made in her published articles.

Honorable Senators:  If you support these proposals, you should stand up and say so out loud, so everybody can hear you.  If you don't support them, you should obviously vote No on this nomination.