'This Job Is About Judgement': Warren Slams Trump's SEC Chair Nom Over Role In 2008 Financial Crisis

3/27/2025

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) interrogated President Trump's nominee to lead the SEC, Paul Atkins, over his role as an SEC Commissioner in the lead up to the 2008 Financial Crisis.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Mr. Atkins, you served as an SEC

00:06commissioner from 2002 to 2008. The lead-up to the 2008 financial crash that

00:13crashed the markets, cost 10 million families their homes, and cost millions

00:19more their jobs. Your job was to spot and head off risks that were building up in

00:26financial markets, but you showed staggeringly bad judgment. I just have a

00:31few examples, since we're limited on time. In 2004, when Lehman Brothers and Bear

00:36Stearns asked the SEC to allow them to reduce their capital buffer by 40%, you

00:42said yes and voted to weaken the rules on investment banks. In August of 2007,

00:49after what was then, quote, the worst week for the American stock market in nearly

00:5550 years, or five years, you bragged that, quote, principles of regulatory restraint

01:02have been affirmed as the market has continued to demonstrate a capacity to

01:07minimize and absorb systemic risk. Worst week, and you said, great, it shows how

01:14strong we are. And then days after Bear Stearns collapse in March of 2008, you

01:22made fun of people who thought we needed stronger financial regulations,

01:26claiming they were, quote, wallowing in a period of irrational pessimism, and you

01:33said that, quote, regulators must not stand in the way of investors and market

01:39participants sorting this situation out. Yeah, it's sorted itself out with the

01:45biggest crash since the Great Depression. So, simple question, Mr. Atkins, were you

01:51wrong? Well, Senator Warren, you know, there are many, as we saw on the

01:59Congressional Literacy Site panel for TARP, there were many causes for the

02:03problems there with that subprime mortgage crisis. Yeah, but I'm asking

02:07whether you were wrong about deregulation. No, I don't believe so. I

02:12think that was... Well, you know, both the SEC Inspector General and the bipartisan

02:18Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said that the SEC's deregulation of

02:24investment banks contributed to the crisis. If you haven't done it yet, I

02:29recommend that you read this, Mr. Atkins. Look, this job is about judgment, and

02:37holding up on your resume that you were one of the people on the job to exercise

02:42judgment in the run-up to the biggest crash since the Great Depression, and

02:47now your hindsight is not 20-20, it's 20-0. You still say that weakening those

02:54regulations didn't have anything to do with that crash. I really hope you will

02:59read the bipartisan analysis that says otherwise, because it's a very dangerous

03:05to have you in charge of the SEC. Now, one of my other top concerns about your

03:10nomination, Mr. Atkins, is that your judgment will be influenced by more than

03:15an objective assessment of the data in front of you. After your stint as an SEC

03:20commissioner, you founded a consulting firm called Potomac Global Partners.

03:25Potomac counts every time a kind of financial firm subject to the SEC's

03:30rules among its clients, banks, asset managers, brokers, exchanges, fintechs, and

03:36crypto companies. Your clients pay you north of $1,200 an hour for advice on how

03:41to influence regulators like the SEC, and if you're confirmed, you will be in a

03:47prime spot to deliver for all those clients who've been paying you millions

03:52of dollars for years. So, Mr. Atkins, given how breathtaking your financial

03:57conflicts of interest are, I sent you a letter requesting that you commit to a

04:02higher standard of government ethics. Slow down the revolving door here.

04:06Several major financial regulators in the previous administration agreed to

04:11these higher standards, but you sent me a response 10 minutes before this

04:15hearing started saying, no, you think you've done enough. That is deeply

04:21concerning to me, but let's focus on just getting one thing straight. Your

04:25consulting company is estimated to be worth about $50 million. Will you at

04:31least disclose, you've said that you will sell it if you are confirmed, will you

04:35disclose who the buyers are and how much they pay so that we can make certain

04:40that these are not people who are just buying access to the future chair of the

04:45SEC? Well, Senator Warren, I have abided by the Office of Government Ethics. I have a question

04:53about selling Potomac Partners. I will abide by the process. So is that a no?

04:58You're not going to tell us who you sell it to and how much money you get to

05:03people who will have business in front of the SEC. You know, some people might

05:07call that a pre-bribe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

'This Job Is About Judgement': Warren Slams Trump's SEC Chair Nom Over Role In 2008 Financial Crisis

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