Public Distrusts Wall Street Regulators as Much as Wall Street
Americans distrust government financial regulators as much as they distrust Wall Street…
A new Cato Institute national survey of 2,000 U.S. adults finds that Americans distrust government financial regulators as much as they distrust Wall Street.
“The data show that Americans are wary of Wall Street, but they don’t have much confidence in the regulators overseeing Wall Street either,” said Cato’s Director of Polling Dr. Emily Ekins. “When Americans say they want ‘more’ regulation of Wall Street, they don’t necessarily want more mandates or to give regulators more power—they want regulators to properly enforce the right kinds of rules.”
Nearly half (48%) have “hardly any confidence” in either. Nearly three-fourths (74%) of Americans believe regulations often fail to have their intended effect, 75% believe government financial regulators care more about their own jobs and ambitions than the well-being of Americans, and 80% worry regulators allow their political biases to impact their judgment. While six in ten believe that regulations in the past have produced positive benefits (59%) and can make businesses more responsive (56%), nearly two-thirds (62%) worry that regulations too often cause more harm than good.
Americans don’t believe that regulators help banks make better business decisions (74%) or better decisions about how much risk to take (68%). Instead, Americans want regulators to focus on preventing banks from committing fraud (65%) and ensuring banks fulfil their obligations to customers (56%).
A plurality (41%) of Americans think the financial industry needs more oversight. However, only 18% think the problem is that there are “too few” rules on Wall Street. Instead, 63% say the government fails to “properly enforce existing rules” (40%) or enacts the “wrong kinds” of regulations on big banks (23%).
