Elizabeth Warren

Rule Changes

Leading Congressional opposition to CFPB dismantling

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau returned $21 billion to defrauded Americans over its 14-year existence. Now the agency that Elizabeth Warren built is fighting for survival, its workforce slashed from 1,700 to roughly 200, its budget cut in half, and federal judges the only barrier between it and extinction.

Updated Feb 12

Rule Changes

Pressing Bessent on Fed independence and World Liberty Financial ethics

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's February 2026 congressional testimony shattered norms of Treasury oversight: two days of shouting matches with House Democrats (Maxine Waters asking to 'shut him up,' Gregory Meeks calling him a 'flunky'), followed by heated Senate Banking Committee exchanges where Democratic Senator Jack Reed called his conduct 'childish' and Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed him on whether Fed nominee Kevin Warsh would face investigations if interest rates aren't cut as Trump demands. Bessent refused to clarify, prompting Warren to call the situation 'an even taller steaming pile of corruption.' The hearings devolved into what one former Treasury official called a role 'you typically don't see a treasury secretary play.'

Updated Feb 5

Rule Changes

Leads congressional push for GAO investigation into Pulte

In early 2025, President Donald Trump installed housing heir Bill Pulte as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator overseeing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and more than $8.5 trillion in U.S. mortgage credit. Within months, Pulte began using access to mortgage data to publicly accuse several high-profile Democrats — New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and Congressman Eric Swalwell — of mortgage fraud, referring them to the Justice Department amid concerns of political retribution.

Updated Feb 5

Money Moves

Calling for investigation into deal

For five years, the world's most popular social media app lived under a death sentence. TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, faced repeated ban threats from two administrations convinced its Chinese ownership posed an unacceptable national security risk. On January 23, 2026, that uncertainty ended: TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC became operational, transferring 80.1% ownership to American and allied investors while ByteDance retained a non-controlling 19.9% stake.

Updated Jan 25

Money Moves

Leading Congressional critic demanding antitrust enforcement

On December 5, 2025, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced a definitive deal for Netflix to acquire Warner Bros.' film and television studios plus its premium and streaming businesses, including HBO and HBO Max, in a transaction valued at roughly $72 billion in equity and $82.7 billion including debt. On January 20, 2026, the parties amended the agreement to an all-cash structure at the same $27.75 per share price, accelerating the timeline for a shareholder vote now expected by April 2026. The deal follows WBD's June 2025 decision to split into two public companies—Warner Bros. (studios and streaming) and Discovery Global (cable networks)—and caps a months-long auction in which Netflix outbid Paramount Skydance and Comcast. In the weeks following the announcement, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos met personally with President Donald Trump at the White House, while rival Paramount Skydance launched a $108 billion hostile tender offer that WBD's board has repeatedly rejected.

Updated Jan 24

Rule Changes

Leading congressional inquiry into tech company energy practices

For decades, American households have paid roughly the same share of electricity costs regardless of which industries were expanding. AI data centers have broken that arrangement. In 2025, regions with concentrated data center activity saw wholesale electricity prices rise as much as 267% over five years, with the PJM grid operator—serving 65 million people across 13 states—projecting $100 billion in extra consumer costs through 2033 unless something changes.

Updated Jan 13

Money Moves

Led opposition to merger on antitrust grounds

Compass and Anywhere Real Estate closed their $1.6 billion all-stock merger on January 9, 2026, creating Compass International Holdings—the world's largest residential real estate brokerage. The combined entity controls 340,000 agents across every major U.S. city and 120 countries, uniting premium brands like Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, and Compass under CEO Robert Reffkin. The deal cleared antitrust review despite senators warning it would squeeze independent mom-and-pop brokerages.

Updated Jan 11

Rule Changes

Leading congressional opposition to AML delay alongside Kim and Waters

FinCEN just delayed anti-money laundering rules for investment advisers by two years, pushing compliance from January 2026 to January 2028. It's the fourth time since 2002 that federal regulators have tried—and struggled—to close what transparency advocates call a $125 trillion loophole that sanctioned Russian oligarchs, corrupt foreign officials, and fraudsters exploit to access U.S. markets. The rule would force 15,000 advisory firms to implement the same suspicious activity reporting that banks face.

Updated Jan 2

Rule Changes

Leading Democratic pushback demanding documents and DOJ involvement details

The Trump administration just did the thing Washington has spent years swearing it wouldn’t do: let China buy a near-top-tier Nvidia AI chip again. Now a key China hawk in Congress is demanding the Commerce Department explain, in detail, why this isn’t a strategic own-goal.

Updated Dec 13, 2025

Rule Changes

Leading critic of private-credit risks and bank exposure

In March 2013, U.S. bank regulators issued joint supervisory guidance on leveraged lending to prevent a return of pre-2008-style underwriting excesses, with examiners informally anchoring scrutiny around a roughly six-times-EBITDA leverage benchmark. Over the next decade, banks’ pullback helped shift riskier deal finance toward private-credit funds, CLOs, and other nonbanks—expanding an opaque “shadow banking” ecosystem even as regulators maintained the guidance was supervisory, not a binding rule.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

Money Moves

Leading political critic calling for aggressive antitrust review

After Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery announced their $72 billion equity-value agreement on December 5, the transaction quickly became a live bidding contest and a regulatory test case. On December 8, Paramount Skydance launched an unsolicited all-cash tender offer for all of WBD at $30 per share, seeking to derail the Netflix deal and keep the company intact (including the networks slated for the Discovery Global spin-off). Within days, Netflix began a coordinated shareholder push backing its signed merger agreement and emphasizing regulatory execution, while WBD prepared formal filings to respond to the tender offer.

Updated Dec 11, 2025