The John Batchelor Show

VIDEO: Last of the Progressives

August 21, 2015

Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  Cori O'Conner, WSJ editorial board asst, in re: . . . the fee-based model is typically in larger accounts; new rule will go to former commission-based model of less than $25,000.  Goal is to send people to roboadvice.  Two large camps in contest: progressive (e.g., Tom Perez), which regards competition as a danger zone fraught with exploitation, and libertarians, classical liberals, who regard the marketplace as the safest place. Former believe in expert knowledge  as the only good knowledge, the only way fully to understand; see themselves as the experts helping the rest of us benighted citizens. 
The Obama Administration may have only 17 months to go, but that's still enough time to do plenty of economic damage. Witness Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who is rushing through a new regulation for financial advisors that isn't needed, that he lacks clear legal authority to impose, and that will hurt the very people it's supposed to help. Other than that, it's a splendid idea.