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Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
The GENIUS Act Is A Good Start, But Congress Could Make It Smarter
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 10: U.S. Vice President JD Vance addresses the National League of Cities: ... More Congressional City Conference at the Marriott Marquis on March 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. According to the league, more than 2,000 state and local government officials from across the United States attend the conference to share legislative priorities and policy ideas with members of Congress and the administration and participate in leadership training. (Photo by) Fans of cryptocurrency have long seen stablecoins, a type of crypto that promises stable value, as a gateway to expanding crypto's use and familiarity. The GENIUS Act, the stablecoin legislation currently moving through the Senate, might be the best chance to deliver a favorable legal framework soon, and the chances are better because the Trump administration has made crypto a priority. Last week, Vice President JD Vance even took a clear principled stance, arguing that the United States should not have 'a dictatorial government that tells certain industries they're not allowed to do what they need to do,' and that the government should 'let people make these decisions on their own.' Ignoring the question of why these same ideas shouldn't apply to the rest of Americans' economic decisions, Vance is right. Financial regulation does not have to be based on restricting what people can do with their money, especially not because government officials think certain products or behaviors are 'too risky.' It would be a very different approach from what the United States has done for the past 100 years, but financial regulation should be based on rules that mainly protect people from fraudulent behavior. In the case of stablecoins, regulation that protects from fraudulent behavior would be straightforward, focusing on the reserves they use to maintain a stable value. Most stablecoins try to achieve a stable value by using cash and short-term securities (often U.S. Treasuries) as collateral. In these cases, anyone holding a stablecoin is supposed to be able to convert back to dollars seamlessly, without losing value. So, verifying that a stablecoin issuer really has the 'reserves' it advertises is a key regulatory function. It really should be that simple, but it seems the GENIUS Act negotiations are headed in the wrong direction. As my colleague Jennifer Schulp has pointed out, at least two problems run counter to the goal of fostering innovation and competition in the payments sector. (By the way, the GENIUS acronym stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins.) First, the Senate is effectively prohibiting large nonfinancial firms—Walmart, Google, Apple, etc.—from issuing stablecoins. Some elected officials want to explicitly prohibit everyone other than federally insured banks from issuing stablecoins, so I suppose this provision could be worse. Still, the hostility toward large nonfinancial companies is a harmful restriction on competition, one that fails to create a neutral regulatory environment or create a level playing field for issuers. Another problem is that the Senate wants to make the Fed, the Treasury, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation part of a 'Stablecoin Certification Review Committee.' This committee would, among other things, have to sign off on state regulatory regimes for 'smaller' stablecoin issuers to operate under a state-based regulatory framework. This feature is dangerously close to violating Vice President Vance's recently espoused principles and surely violates the spirit of a free enterprise system. It also runs counter to the goal of fostering innovation and competition in the payments sector. And there's one more looming problem with the Senate's approach—it doubles down on 'financial stability' regulation. For instance, the GENIUS Act requires the Comptroller of the Currency to issue regulations to 'ensure financial stability.' Unfortunately, this approach fits perfectly with the grossly ineffective regulatory framework we already have. Federal regulators have been trying to ensure financial stability for decades, long before the 2008 financial crisis. It does not work. At best, it gives federal officials the discretion to dictate behavior based on virtually any conceivable potential risk. It gives them the ability to tell people what they can do with their money to reach a regulatory goal that can only be achieved by prohibiting people from taking risks. The history of financial regulation has clarified the problems with this approach, but somehow that history still gets badly distorted. The federal financial regulatory framework has repeatedly failed to maintain financial stability or protect taxpayers, so it makes little sense to keep doubling down on the failed approach. Still, critics of crypto want more government involvement to maintain stability, and this is a source of problems in both the overall financial regulatory framework and the approach shaping up in the GENIUS Act. It's also a problem that comes from the fear of allowing private sector companies to operate too freely with people's money. But the monetary system, though heavily regulated, already consists mostly of privately created money. And the payments sector, though heavily regulated, already relies on many private sector companies. In many respects, crypto is a response to the inefficiencies in the payments sector caused by too much government involvement, so it would be counterproductive to squash this new technology before it can improve the payments system. Many critics want a fully public system, but a private system, with strong property rights and government fraud protection, would be superior to a fully public system. Payments systems are not an exception to the superiority of free enterprise. Providing a simple framework for fully backed stablecoins, one that prohibits fraud and makes it easy to verify reserves, should be a no-brainer. It's a great way to let people determine if the technology is worthwhile, just like Vice President Vance suggests. If the fully backed tokens work as some people think they will, it will only strengthen the payments system and the status of the U.S. dollar. Members of Congress should recognize that it makes little sense to double down on the overly paternalistic and prescriptive federal regime that's already in place. The current approach trusts regulators' judgment instead of the judgment of people using the markets every day. Expanding that approach will ensure that regular Americans continue to lose their ability to do what they want with their money. It will not prevent financial crises, but it will deliver even more rules and directives that enrich the well-connected and harm regular Americans. Surely Congress can do better. Then, they can work with the administration to apply Vice President Vance's principles to the rest of the economy.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘How the hell are you doing this?': Watson says cities look to Austin for housing policy
AUSTIN (KXAN) — During a regional housing summit Friday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson flexed on adjustments made by the city of Austin to allow for more affordable housing. Over the past few years Austin has made significant changes to its land development code, including: reducing minimum lot size requirements, allowing for more units to be built on a single-family lot and eliminating parking requirements. 'I can tell you for certain that Austin, Texas is in the vanguard of the national housing discussion and cities all over this country right now have been looking to us for ideas about how they address their own affordability challenges,' Watson said. 'Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Antonio have all reached out asking in one form of this question or another, 'how the hell are you doing this?'' Last month, Vice President JD Vance urged leaders at the National League of Cities to prioritize housing reform, using Austin as an example of success. 'We've got to actually make it easier to build homes, and in particular, I think the city of Austin has done a pretty interesting job, because in Austin, you saw this massive increase of people moving in, the cost of housing skyrocketed, but then Austin implemented some pretty smart policies and brought down the cost of housing, and it's one of the few major American cities where you see the cost of housing leveling off or even coming down,' Vance said. As recently as Thursday, Austin City Council approved a code amendment that allows more units to be built using only one central staircase. Austin City Council signs off on more 'single stair' buildings 'Heck, just yesterday we did something with regard to single stairway that people said wouldn't be able to happen in Austin, Texas. So thank you all very much,' Watson said. The city council is also asking for a study to understand the feasibility of allowing 'single stair' buildings to reach up to six stories. Advocates of 'single stair' housing say it will create more flexibility in how smaller complexes are built, potentially making them more affordable. 'In support of increased housing options, the Council adopted amendments allowing single-stairway designs in certain multi-family residential buildings up to five stories,' the city of Austin wrote in a news release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maggie Ballard goes to Washington and cold-shoulders MAGA Sen. Roger Marshall in photo op
The coolest thing that happened around here this past week didn't happen here, and it wasn't really a thing, it was more of an image. The Wichita City Council spent most of the week on its annual trip to Washington, D.C., where members participate in a National League of Cities conference and ritual glad-handing with our representatives and senators on Capitol Hill. But the grip-and-grin photo op featuring the Wichita City Council posing with U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall was more like a grip-and-grimace for council member Maggie Ballard. Ballard practiced some, shall we say, 'social distancing' from the pro-MAGA senator, who recently starred in a viral video where he stalked out of his own town hall meeting in Northwest Nowhere Kansas, when the crowd got a little testy over the Trump administration's ongoing dismantlement of the federal government. Ballard's distance from Marshall, and the gap between her and the rest of the council, was so large that she was almost out of the frame. And lest anyone may have thought that was accidental, she later posted the picture on Facebook with the caption: 'How do you say you don't want to be in the picture with Senator Marshall without saying you don't want to be in the picture?' Along with it, she posted a selfie wearing 'my new lapel pin for DC.' It's an alligator embossed with the message 'EAT RACISTS.' City Hall posted the Marshall picture on its Facebook page, along with another picture of the council members with Kansas' other senator, Jerry Moran — a conservative Republican, but one who has criticized some of the more excessive excesses of the Trump administration. The difference is striking. In the Moran picture, all six council members and Mayor Lily Wu are smiling like it's spring break. In the Marshall shot, council member Brandon Johnson is almost as grim-faced as Ballard and Mike Hoheisel is trying his best to look neutral. In the comments on Facebook, hilarity ensued. 'Marshal didn't run out of the room?' 'Oh look he was finally in a room with people who are from Kansas. Let me guess, no questions?' 'Where did they park the Weenie Mobile?' 'Why are we flying them to DC? Marshall and Moran allegedly live in Kansas.' 'Name 5 things accomplished by your trip:' 'Team Koch earning their donations?' 'Glad the council was able to take a trip without getting into another bar fight.' 'Omg ! Maggie . I almost peed a little.' It went on like that for some time, but you get the drift. There are a lot of people angry with Marshall right now, and not just over the disastrous town hall. His no-questions-asked devotion to the MAGA agenda has irritated a wide range of Kansans, including: ▪ Farmers being whipsawed by on-again-off-again tariffs disrupting their markets and business plans. ▪ Family and friends of federal workers who were summarily fired for being federal workers. ▪ Supporters of nonprofit groups that are being stripped of federal contracts and funding. ▪ Minorities in the crosshairs of the administration's anti-DEI campaign to rid the nation of diversity, equity and inclusion. Marshall's up for reelection next year and if he decides to run again, he's vulnerable. This is a deep-red state where the default vote is always Republican. But it's made up of reasonably independent people who've shown that they can break with the GOP on statewide elections, most recently electing Laura Kelly as governor and rejecting the anti-abortion rights amendment called Value them Both. Democrats could steal Marshall's Senate seat if they can find the right candidate. They could do worse than Maggie Ballard. Senator Marshall, you're no Dwight Eisenhower. And neither is Donald Trump | Opinion Does Sen. Roger Marshall even know what a town hall meeting is? | Opinion
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
VP Vance: Austin used ‘some pretty smart policies' to addressing housing affordability
AUSTIN (KXAN) — In a speech before local policy makers Monday, Vice President JD Vance urged leaders at the National League of Cities to prioritize housing reform. During that speech, he pointed to efforts in Austin. Vice President JD Vance speaks at League of Cities conference 'We want Americans to be able to afford the American dream of home ownership, because we know that when people own their homes, it makes them a stakeholder. It makes them a stakeholder in their neighborhoods, in their cities, and ultimately, of course, in this country,' Vance said. Vance talked about the challenges people are facing now to buy or even rent a home. He pointed to inflation and then pivoted to zoning. 'The reality you all know is that zoning is an area where federal authority is actually quite limited, and I'm sure none of you want the federal government in the business of mandating how cities and towns handle local laws, and that's certainly not what we want to do either,' Vance said. 'What are we getting?' We pulled the data from 264 HOME initiative applications That's where the vice president used the city of Austin as an example. Our city has implemented several zoning changes with the goal of increasing housing supply over the past few years. Those changes include: Three units: Bumping the number of units 'by right' allowed on a single-family lot to three Tiny homes: Patching loopholes in Austin's land development code to more easily allow for tiny homes to be considered a unit on a lot zoned as single-family House size limits: Setting 'size constraints' to force smaller units Minimum lot size: Dropping minimum lot size requirements from 5,750 square feet to 1,800 square feet You may know those changes better as HOME phase one and HOME phase two. Austin has also made zoning changes like eliminating parking requirements. 'We've got to actually make it easier to build homes, and in particular, I think the city of Austin has done a pretty interesting job, because in Austin, you saw this massive increase of people moving in, the cost of housing skyrocketed, but then Austin implemented some pretty smart policies and brought down the cost of housing, and it's one of the few major American cities where you see the cost of housing leveling off or even coming down,' Vance said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
12-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Trade war will 'hurt us both,' Canadian delegation tells American municipal leaders
A Nova Scotia municipal leader on a recent Canadian delegation to Washington, D.C., says the group stressed to their American counterparts the current trade war will make life more expensive for citizens on both sides of the border. Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood was part of a Federation of Canadian Municipalities delegation that attended the National League of Cities conference on Sunday and Monday. "We're here as friends, allies, neighbours forever, to help share that message so that you understand that it is going to hurt us both," Mood said in an interview Wednesday, summing up the message they delivered. Mood said it was an "eye-opening" experience for her, and she met some mayors from the United States who didn't know tariffs had been imposed, or what their impacts would be. That's why it was especially important to spread awareness among local politicians, Mood said. She's hopeful those mayors and councillors will press their governors for change once they return home. "I think we know how politicians react when the people on the ground are screaming. It may not work with this [U.S.] administration, but we have to do everything we can," Mood said. Mood said she and the other group members, an Ottawa city councillor and the mayor of Dorval, Que., gave presentations and spoke with various municipal leaders about the reality of the tariff fight. They discussed how the price of new homes and cars will go up for both Canadian and American buyers, Mood said, and highlighted how farmers in the U.S. rely heavily on Canadian potash for their fertilizer. California cities like Los Angeles affected by devastating fires will also find it more difficult and expensive to source lumber from Canada to rebuild homes, Mood said. "The No. 1 thing we got were apologies. You know, 'We're so sorry this is happening to you. You're Canada, you've been our friend, you've been our ally,'" Mood said. "And, you know, the message back was, 'Listen, we know it's not the people, and we're sorry as well, because you're going to hurt. We're going to hurt. And none of us wants this." U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance spoke at the conference, and Mood said he focused on the importance of local governance and housing. But she said he didn't address how tariffs will lead to construction cost increases for those housing projects. Joly urges Americans to 'send a message' to White House to end tariffs 6 hours ago Duration 1:48 "I could have responded every time to say 'But that's not quite it. You know, you're leaving out the hurtful impacts,' and that's what's important to these people on the ground," Mood said. The only mention Vance made of tensions between the countries was when he said how pleased he was to see Canada moving to "tighten the border" to prevent drugs from flowing into the U.S., Mood said. President Donald Trump has cited fentanyl crossing into the U.S. from Canada as justification for his administration's tariffs. The U.S. government's own data shows Canada is not a significant source of illegal fentanyl with less than 20 kilograms of the drug seized at the northern border last year. The Canadian delegation also met with the Democratic Mayors Association, Mood said, and Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Andrew Ginther, president of the United States Conference of Mayors. Mood said they asked to meet with the Republican Mayors Association as well. They were told that group would get back to them "but they didn't." Although Mood said she understands the pressure of not wanting to upset higher levels of Republican government who "hold the chequebook," those in public service should have a loyalty to their residents first, she said. The latest volley in the trade saga came Wednesday when Trump placed a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum. In response, the Canadian government slapped tariffs
