The mixed results of the 2018 midterm elections open the season for the 2020 election. In the coming months, Corporations and Health Watchwill raise some of the issues that warrant discussion in this election. Today’s focus is on public health regulation of corporations. Two recent reports provide a starting point for the national conversation that is needed.
4 Takeaways from the Trump-Era Plunge in Corporate Penalties
At a time when the Trump administration is loosening rules established in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, writes The New York Times, financial penalties imposed on companies and big banks accused of wrongdoing have fallen precipitously since the Obama administration, according to analyses by The New York Times.
In consultation with outside experts, The Times conducted separate examinations of enforcement activity at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, comparing cases filed during the first 20 months of the Trump presidency with those in the final 20 months of the Obama administration.
The analysis found a 62 percent drop in penalties imposed and illicit profits ordered returned by the S.E.C. At the Justice Department, the analysis found a 72 percent decline in corporate penalties from criminal prosecutions, and a similar percent drop in certain civil penalties against financial institutions. Read the full story “Trump Administration Spares Corporate Wrongdoers Billions in Penalties.”
The War on Regulation: A Guide to the Ongoing Assault on Public Protections to Boost Corporate Profits
The war on regulation – carried out by the Trump administration, conservatives in Congress and private industry – is premised on a great deal of misinformation and misleading claims. A recent report by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, a national alliance of more than 160 consumer, labor, scientific, research, public health and other groups, provides readers with what they need to know to understand what’s at stake in the war on regulation and why regulatory safeguards matter. Read the full report.
Corporations and Health Watch 