April 21, 2023 Reading Time: < 1 minute

In this episode of Liberty Curious, Kate Wand discusses the Obama-era Operation Chokepoint, and today’s “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” with AIER Senior Research Faculty Thomas Hogan.

Tom explains how government regulators have been pressuring banks not to lend to politically unpopular industries, such as firearms manufacturers, payday lenders, and cryptocurrency companies, even though there are no laws against lending to them. 

He also traces the increase in regulators’ powers over time, such that unelected bureaucrats enact overly burdensome rules and requirements and circumvent the democratic process.

Thomas L. Hogan

Thomas L. Hogan, Ph.D., is senior research fellow at AIER. He was formerly the chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He has also worked at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Troy University, West Texas A&M University, the Cato Institute, the World Bank, Merrill Lynch’s commodity trading group and for investment firms in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Hogan’s research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Macroeconomics and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. He has appeared on programs such as BBC World News, Stossel TV, and Bloomberg Radio and has been quoted by news outlets including CNN Business, American Banker, and the National Review.

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Kate Wand

Kate Wand is a content creator. Her focus is social commentary and filmmaking. She is the host of AIER’s Liberty Curious podcast.

You can follow her on Twitter @katewand.

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