Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Bartlett Naylor
Trump’s Racist Lending Agenda
By Bartlett Naylor Consistent with Donald Trump’s reported history as a racist landlord, the bank regulators he controls now propose to gut one of the nation’s foundational laws aimed at combating credit discrimination, including redlining, where specific neighborhoods are excluded from opportunities available to other people.
Cockroaches in Private Credit
By Bartlett Naylor Energy markets roil because of Trump’s Iran war, crypto prices collapse, and private credit now raises systemic threat questions. American finance should not be based on delusional wishful thinking, but the stunning rise in bank lending to private credit and private equity requires a leap without understanding the gap. That’s because, government oversees bank lending, but private equity and credit operate without transparency. Failures surprise. Warning sounds abound.
Up, Up and Away: Explaining Why CEO Pay Soars
On Nov. 6, 2025, Tesla shareholders approved a record shattering compensation package for CEO Elon Musk valued at $1 trillion.
Senate: Oppose Trump Crypto Grift Enabling Bill
The Honorable Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry The Honorable Members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senators: On behalf of more than one million members and supporters of Public Citizen, we urge the members of the Senate Committees on Banking and Agriculture to oppose the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act as currently drafted.
Stop the Next Epstein; Stop Stablecoin “Rewards”
Congress’ new crypto law transfers wealth from community banks and may open the door to the next Jeffrey Epstein. By Bartlett Naylor A loophole in a cryptocurrency law Congress approved last summer may help finance the next Jeffrey Epstein. This overlooked snafu may permit Interest payments on stablecoins., potentially financing sex traffickers, cartels and sanctioned regimes Stablecoins are crypto where one dollar buys one token.
Musk’s Unfathomable $1 Trillion Payday, Explained
On Thursday, Tesla’s board of directors will ask shareholders to approve a pay plan for Musk that would grant him approximately $1 trillion in stock and expand his voting powers at the company.
Trump SEC Screws Investors with Forced Arbitration
By Martha Perez-Pedemonti and Bartlett Naylor Investors Screwed by Wall Street Now Have Fewer Avenues of Redress Thanks to Trump’s Wall Street Sycophantic SEC. Instead of constitutional rights guaranteeing access to the courts, abused investors will be forced into a funneled into arbitration kangaroo court.
Comment on Senate Crypto Bill
Public Citizen Menu The Honorable Tim Scott, Chair The Honorable Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member Honorable Members U.S. Senate Banking Committee Washington, D.C. 20510 Re: Digital Asset Market Structure Request for Information Dear Chair, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee, On behalf of more than 500,000 members and supporters of Public Citizen from across the country, we offer the following comment in response to the “Digital Asset Market Structure Request for Information” (RFI).
Public Citizen Menu May 6, 2025 John Keller, Chief Jamieson Greer, Director Public Integrity Section U.S. Office of Government Ethics Department of Justice Dear Officers, This is getting absurd. On Feb. 5, 2025, Public Citizen asked you to investigate whether President Donald J. Trump has violated 18 U.S.C. § 201, as implemented in 5 C.F.R. §2635, barring the president from soliciting gifts.
Musk Must Not Escape CFPB Oversight
March 20, 2025 The Honorable French Hill, Chair The Honorable Maxine Waters, Ranking Member Honorable Members House Financial Services Committee Washington, DC 20515 Dear Committee members, On behalf of more than 500,000 members and supporters of Public Citizen[1], we provide the following comment for the House Financial Services Committee hearing scheduled for March 26, 2025, regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), titled “A New Era for the CFPB: Balancing Power and...
Senate Banking Committee: Vote NO on Crypto Stablecoin Bill (GENIUS Act)
March 11, 2025 The Honorable Tim Scott, Chair The Honorable Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member Honorable Members Senate Banking Committee 534 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Please vote NO on the GENIUS Act.
OGE Must Review Whether Trump Soliciting Gifts
March 6, 2025 Douglas A.
Senate: Vote No on resolution to end oversight of Big Tech payment apps
By Bartlett Naylor March 4, 2025 Honorable Senator United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 Please vote NO on S.J. Res 28, relating to “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications.” Dear Honorable Senator, On behalf of more than 500,000 members and supporters of Public Citizen[1], we ask you to vote NO on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution S.J. Res 28, which is a joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Consumer...
To Office of Government Ethics: No Musk at CFPB - Public Citizen
By Bartlett Naylor February 20, 2025 Doug Collins, Acting Director Office of the Director U.S. Office of Government Ethics 250 E Street SW, Suite 750 Washington, DC 20024 Dear Director, I write on behalf of Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization with members in all fifty states, which works to support the enactment and enforcement of laws protecting consumers, workers, and the general public.
Guaranteed Crypto Loss
By Bartlett Naylor Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, is “based on thin air.” It is a “scam.” It can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.” These are Public Citizen positions. But they are also direct comments from then President Donald J. Trump. Public Citizen continues to believe cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme and enables illicit activity. It also wastes , contributing to climate change.
13 Hearings - Public Citizen
By Bartlett Naylor Americans understandably worry about interest rates frustrating the ability to buy a home, junk fees that bloat a bill, or discriminatory lending that disenfranchises vulnerable communities. These financial issues deserve congressional attention. But for the last 12 months, the House Financial Services Committee instead held 13 hearings about what’s known as the “Basel III endgame” proposal jointly issued by federal financial agencies.
Trump’s Guaranteed Crypto Loss
By Bartlett Naylor Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, is based on thin air. It is a scam. It can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity. These are Public Citizen positions. But they are also direct comments from then President Donald J. Trump. Public Citizen continues to believe cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme and enables illicit activity. It also wastes , contributing to climate change.
Public Citizen opposition to cryptocurrency legislation
May 20, 2024 Honorable Member of Congress House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Re: Vote No on H.R. 4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (The “FIT” Act) Dear Representative, On behalf of more than 500,000 members and supporters of Public Citizen, we strongly urge you to Vote No on H.R. 4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (The “FIT” Act). This bill would legitimize cryptocurrency.
Public Citizen comment on House Financial Services Commt bills, Feb 2024
February 28, 2024 Chair Patrick McHenry Ranking Member Maxine Waters Honorable Members of the Committee U.S. House Committee on Financial Services 2129 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Re: Bills Slated for Committee Vote on February 29, 2024 Dear Chair McHenry, Ranking Member Waters and Members of the Committee, On behalf of more than 500,000 members and supporters of Public Citizen, we offer the following comment on a suite of bills scheduled for committee consideration...
Subsidizing Executive Pay? End it Now.
By Bartlett Naylor By the time the CEO of a major corporation clocks out after a day’s work, he’s pocketed what the typical American must work an entire year to earn. In the 1960s, a CEO earned about 20 times that of average employees. Now, the ratio is 300. Polls affirm bipartisan opposition to this yawning gap. Among other ills, Americans believe it’s unfair.
One year after SVB's collapse, it's time to reform banker pay
Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank , an event that sent tremors through the banking system as a precipitous run on deposits led to shudders through other regional banks and beyond. Common conversations...
Staffing the Fight Against Redlining
By Candace Milner and Bartlett Naylor On October 24, 2023, federal financial regulatory agencies approved a sweeping update to the Community Reinvestment Act. The Community Reinvestment Act serves amongst a constellation of laws aimed at combatting discriminatory lending. Perversely, it was personnel within the federal government itself that built discrimination into the loan-making process during the 1930s.
Missing Parent: - Public Citizen
The Hunt for Banker Pay Reform A Whodoneit Where A Reader Maybe Done It By Bartlett Naylor Laws have a legislative history, and legislative parents. Often, these histories are colorful, sometimes intense, occasionally tragic, as with the events that led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The parents of this law are many. Some are famous, such as Martin Luther King. Some are less famous, such as Emmauel Cueller, the member of Congress who helped draft and shepard the law through Congress.
Lisa Gilbert
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Inappropriate - Public Citizen
Executive Summary The 2008 financial crash stemmed from numerous causes, and risk-taking by bankers in pursuit of incentive-based compensation figured as one of the most conspicuous triggers. Bankers committed massive frauds selling flawed mortgages, ultimately sending the economy into a Great Recession.
How Biden Can Tame Wall Street
This year, the CARES Act intended to serve as a safety net for the pandemic-silenced sectors of the economy. Congress approved more than $500 billion in funds for corporate America in the hopes that firms would retain employees through the shutdown. These funds were necessary, proponents explained, because these companies lacked the reserves to keep workers on the payroll. Had these same firms not engaged in a spree of buybacks just in the last three years, they might not have needed taxpayer help.
White Collar Crime Pays
Jump to section Since the 1980s, the fruits from rising economic output from workers at American corporations have concentrated earnings at the top. Average worker wages have stagnated, while those of senior managers soared. This follows a precipitous decline in the top marginal tax rate along with deterioration in the power of collective bargaining owing to declining unionization rates. Meeting certain performance benchmarks, often pegged to a firm’s stock price, determines that senior pay.
Bullies of Banking
By Bartlett Naylor It’s axiomatic that unconfronted bullies keep bullying. And if the bully is rewarded for bullying, well … On June 11, shareholders of First United Bank, a local bank headquartered in Oakland, Md. (population around 2,000) will vote on competing slates of directors for the board. One slate was nominated by the incumbent board, the other by a private equity hawk hoping to precipitate a sale of the bank at a price higher than where he invested.
Racial Health and Economic Disparities are Two Sides of the Same Coin
In Baltimore, like in the rest of the United States, Covid-19 exacerbates racial inequality and economic marginalization. The legacy of discrimination and the continued corruption and disenfranchisement take shape in the city’s biggest issues – homelessness, food insecurity, crime, poverty, and lack of access to resources. Covid-19 magnifies these issues and shows that they cannot be fixed without systemic change.
The Ride Gets Rougher: Gig Workers Organize Through a Pandemic
A year ago, on May 8, 2019, Uber and other ride-hailing app drivers demonstrated their collective power by launching a worldwide day of action to protest continuous cuts to driver pay. Uber and Lyft drivers in California now plan a follow up day of action next week, on May 11, including a national Facebook live event. And just a week ago, grocery and delivery service workers throughout the U.S. organized strikes and demonstrations on International Workers Day.
When it Comes to Watch-dogging the $500 billion bailout, it may be unsettling that it must be “Miller Time.”
By Bartlett Naylor View as PDF On May 5, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Brian Miller to serve as Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. This is the newly created watchdog under the CARES Act to ferret out corruption in Title IV. That’s the $500 billion bailout for beleaguered big business. If you ignore one fact about Mr. Miller, Public Citizen and perhaps most Americans could support Trump’s choice, with some enthusiasm.
Bailed-Out CEOs Should Have Skin in the Game to Keep Them Honest
Congress should require that executives at aided companies who earn more than $1 million defer half of their pay for 10 years. (It can take that long to uncover financial misdeeds.) If the company is found to have engaged in misconduct — whether it’s from misusing aid, money laundering, abusing consumers, price gouging, lying to shareholders, violating product safety standards or some other infraction — any fine the company pays would come directly from the withheld CEO salaries.
DeVos and the Charter School Movement Use a Pandemic to Advance Their Agendas
COVID-19 has shuttered public schools across the nation, state governments are threatening to slash education budgets due to the economic collapse caused by the outbreak, and emergency aid provided by the federal government is far short of what is needed, according to a broad coalition of education groups.
Opinion: How to keep bailed-out CEOs honest
By Bartlett Naylor / Public Citizen Sunday Apr 19, 2020 at 4:22 PM After the 2008 Wall Street bailout, profiteers sucked up too much money. One of them was then-hedge fund manager Steven Mnuchin, now President Trump’s secretary of the Treasury Department. Mnuchin used a government backstop to bottom fish a failed savings and loan.
Opinion: How to keep bailed-out CEOs honest
By Bartlett Naylor / Public Citizen Sunday Apr 19, 2020 at 4:22 PM After the 2008 Wall Street bailout, profiteers sucked up too much money. One of them was then-hedge fund manager Steven Mnuchin, now President Trump’s secretary of the Treasury Department. Mnuchin used a government backstop to bottom fish a failed savings and loan.
Bailed-Out CEOs Should Have Skin in the Game to Keep Them Honest – InsideSources
After the 2008 Wall Street bailout, profiteers sucked up too much money. One of them was then-hedge fund manager Steven Mnuchin, now President Trump’s secretary of the Treasury Department. Mnuchin used a government backstop to bottom fish a failed savings and loan. Instead of helping beleaguered homeowners with mortgages at this firm, he foreclosed on thousands of them and restructured those mortgages to make the bank more attractive to buyers.
Only Oversight of Oversight Will Keep Profiteers From Siphoning Stimulus Money Into Their Own Wallets
Dwell on $2 trillion. Hand out a dollar every second, and it takes almost two weeks to get to $1 million. It takes about 31 years to hand out $1 billion. And about 30,000 years to hand out $1 trillion. American taxpayers are now handing out $2 trillion — 60,000 years’ worth of $1 per second. That’s what’s provided in the CARES Act, signed into law March 27.
Only Oversight of Oversight Will Keep Profiteers From Siphoning Stimulus Money Into Their Own Wallets
On April 2, Pelosi announced the additional creation of a new congressional committee to oversee the bailout, to be chaired by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C). And Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, pledged to watch Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin carefully.
Oversight Oversight
By Lisa Gilbert & Bartlett Naylor Dwell on $2 trillion. Hand out a dollar every second, and it takes almost two weeks to get to $1 million. It takes about 31 years to hand out $1 billion. And about 30,000 years to hand out $1 trillion. American taxpayers are now handing out $2 trillion—60,000 years’ worth of $1 per second. That’s what’s provided in the CARES Act, approved last week.
How to Keep Bailed-Out Managers Honest
By Bartlett Naylor What’s snagging negotiations about the massive coronavirus pandemic aid package is ensuring that the trillion-plus aid goes to working Americans and not to line the pockets of profiteers. That will be key to the effectiveness of Washington’s response to the coronavirus crisis. The Senate GOP bill has little oversight. President Donald Trump said he’d “be the oversight.” Gag me.
Public comments on proposed safeguards littered with industry lies
When developing health, safety, consumer and environmental protections, agencies depend upon truthful feedback from the public. But lately, corporate malefactors are misleading federal agencies through manipulated public comments.
The Revolving Door and the Assault on Community Reinvestment
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/via AP Images Joseph Otting, Comptroller of the Currency, prepares to testify during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Rayburn Building in Washington. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is a piece of 1977 legislation that requires banks to reinvest in their communities. The Republicans have been gunning for it, and now proposed regulations would weaken it in several key respects.
Unfinished business: Banker pay reform
When Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivers her semi-annual report on her agency to Senate and House banking committees on July 15 and 16 respectively, she should face questions about what President Obama recently called the “unfinished business” of Wall Street reform: banker compensation. Bankers didn’t crash the economy for amusement (we hope). Their reckless and often fraudulent actions resulted in part from compensation structures.
Wall Street, DC
On Dec. 11, Washington effectively changed the name of Pennsylvania Ave., which links the White House to Capitol Hill, to "S. Wall Street." In a must-pass spending bill to keep the United States government functioning, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon personally lobbied enough Democrats to win a provision that subsidizes the bank derivatives business, a.k.a. the gambling part.
Goldman Sachs’ secret plan to get political disclosure requirements sacked
Goldman, however, would rather keep this information private. Goldman filed a request on Dec. 28, 2017, with the SEC asking permission to omit the resolution. Citigroup and Eli Lilly filed similar appeals. Until this year, the SEC likely would clear such a resolution for a vote and reject a company request to omit it. But under pressure from industry groups, we fear that the SEC could reverse its policy.
Taking a Hard Look at a Campaign Critical of a Fiduciary Rule
Another View By Daniel Dudis and Bartlett Naylor June 9, 2016 Last week, the United States Chamber of Commerce was among a number of groups that sued Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez to block a new fiduciary rule. The fiduciary rule requires money managers who advise tax-advantaged plans like 401(k)’s to put client interests ahead of their own financial interests when recommending investment products.
Dear Bank Cops: Please Arrest Looters
We read in various media that you may be ready to propose reform of banker pay. That’s mighty nice of you, since Congress required this in Section 956 in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act, and gave you a deadline of May 2011. Congress passed this law and set the deadline because it was obvious that the 2008 financial crash resulted from reckless, fraudulent bankers attempting to make a lot of money. Let’s pause here to emphasize that point.
Wake up, Washington: Reform Banker Pay
Two factors caused the 2008 Wall Street crash: sleeping cops and pay-drunk bankers. Yes, complex financial instruments such as credit default swaps and loan securitizations and the risk created by highly leveraged goliath banks and allowing love-to-win traders to gamble with cheap FDIC-insured deposits all show the “how.” But if Washington regulators had been diligent, they’d have banned certain credit default swaps. Tough cops would have required banks to reduce their debt.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Bartlett
Contact Bartlett, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack