articles by Susan

Wall Street Wants to Kill the Agency Protecting Americans From Financial Scams

Donald Trump promised he would “do a number” on financial regulations, and it looks like he may finally get his wish fulfilled at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency, created by Dodd-Frank, has returned $11.9 billion to 29 million consumers in its short 5 1/2 year history.

Wall Street’s well-paid surrogates in Congress have been beating up the CFPB and its director, Richard Cordray, at every opportunity. But the CFPB nonetheless carried on with its task of cracking down on sleazy payday lenders and sneaky banks that charged for services that customers never got. Now, though, Cordray has said he’s resigning at the end of the month, giving Trump a chance to replace him. The president’s temporary pick, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, once said “I don’t like the fact that the CFPB exists.” You get the idea.

Gary Rivlin and I took a look at the agency’s accomplishments — and at its foes well-funded attacks — in a piece for The Intercept. You can read it here.

Ongoing Tales From the Boom-Boom Room

WNYC’s Richard Hake spoke with me about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal and how it relates to my work on sexual harassment on Wall Street. You can hear the interview here.

 

 

National Federation of Press Women Award

The National Federation of Press Women said that I’ve won first place for business writing in its 2017 National Communications Contest.

From the judges: “This writer goes beyond merely simplifying the facts in public documents: the writer shows knowledge and confidence in pressing federal prosecutors and the securities industry self-regulating body with tough questions; the writer shows that sow action against securities “scammers” has a human cost.”

You can read the winning stories about penny-stock scams here and here.

Financial Advisers Want to Rip off Small Investors. Trump Wants to Help Them Do It

ONE OF THE most important investor protections in decades took effect on June 9. The new rule, issued by the Department of Labor, sets in motion a seemingly commonsense requirement that those who advise on retirement investments must put their clients’ interests ahead of their own. Yet it marks a revolution in retirement security, the result of an epic seven-year battle between consumer advocates and the financial industry that sunk millions of dollars into white shoe lobbying firms, industry-sponsored studies, congressional campaign contributions, and major lawsuits in an effort to block the rule.

You can read my story about the DOL’s fiduciary rule in The Intercept here.

National Society of Newspaper Columnists Award

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists said I received its third place award  in its 2017 competition in the online commentary category for my columns for TheStreet.com.  From the judges: “Antilla’s sharp critiques of overlooked sins in the business world reveal the dysfunctional and villainy beyond the big stories that take hold during ever-briefer news cycles. Her careful research lays bare the institutional flaws and illuminates the direction the public’s attention should be pointed next.”