Jan 18, 2021
Iain Murray, VP of Strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss the history of Operation Choke Point, a 2011-2015 program used to exclude legal businesses from banking led by the DoJ and FDIC. In this episode:
- How Iain Murray came to be one of the main historians of Operation Choke Point
- The roots of Choke Point in the crackdown on poker sites in 2011
- How Choke Point was started on a whim by two midlevel DoJ lawyers in 2011
- How OCP targeted completely legal but politically disfavored industries
- How mechanically the DoJ was able to get banks to comply with their informal guidance
- Why the closed nature of banking means that alternatives financial service providers for these industries couldn't be created
- How bank consolidation meant that OCP was easier to instrumentalize
- How successful was Choke Point in marginalizing targeted industries?
- Did OCP have buy-in from the highest levels of the Obama administration?
- How regulations should have implemented the rules they sought to create with Choke Point – and why they chose not to
- How OCP was an end-around the administrative procedure act, and why it was done covertly
- Was there any accountability for the individuals behind OCP? Was anyone fired?
- Why individuals on any side of the political spectrum should be concerned about OCP
- Did Choke Point ever really end?
- The long term enduring effects of OCP
- How the Wyoming SPDI is a reaction to Choke Point
- Whether Iain agrees with the OCC's 'Fair Access' rule
Content mentioned in this episode:
- Iain Murray at CEI, Operation Choke Point: What it is and why it matters
- OCC, 'Fair Access' rule