“What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,” Treasury Secretary Bessent said this week on CNBC.
“If this were the [Federal Aviation Administration] and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why this happened.”
He’s absolutely right.
If history showed repeated serious mishaps under the FAA’s watch, would we simply tweak a few protocols—or would we re-evaluate the entire flight control system?
Now apply that same logic to America’s economic infrastructure.
For decades, financial oversight has been treated as untouchable. Agencies grow in response to the last crisis, but no one goes back to ask whether the structure itself still works. The Federal Reserve, SEC, FDIC, and the alphabet soup of financial watchdogs operate in silos—duplicating efforts, sending mixed market signals, and often working at cross purposes. No CEO would run a company this way.
Congress’s recent passage of the bipartisan GENIUS Act proves that when lawmakers prioritize clarity and innovation, reform is possible. But digital assets are just one node in a bloated and fragmented system. The problem isn’t crypto—it’s institutional drift.
We Keep Fighting The Last War
Every major reform has been a response to the last crisis. The SEC emerged after the 1929 crash. The FDIC followed Depression-era bank runs. Fed “independence” hardened in the 1970s to battle inflation. Dodd-Frank came after the 2008 collapse.
Each fix made sense in the moment. But layer by layer, they created a backward-looking structure that often stifles innovation and punishes competition.
Today, a fintech startup faces the same compliance burden as a multinational bank. Small businesses seeking capital online must navigate rules built for IPOs. Regulators issue conflicting guidance on emerging technologies, pushing entrepreneurs offshore.
What Trump Knows—And Others Forget
President Trump has always believed in common-sense solutions. His 2025 executive order on digital financial technology made that clear: promote innovation, clarify jurisdiction, and regulate in ways that empower—not paralyze—American enterprise.
It’s time to take that same common-sense approach to the full financial system.
America needs a Commission on Common-Sense Financial Modernization—a national review body empowered to do what no individual agency can: ask whether the entire regulatory framework still serves the economy we have or whether it’s just a legacy of the crises we’ve survived.
A Common-Sense Commission Would:
- Review the coherence and clarity of overlapping agency mandates
- Assess whether regulatory objectives are being met—or simply repeated
- Recommend ways to align fiscal, monetary, and regulatory efforts without politicizing them
- Offer a blueprint for future-facing regulation, not historical reenactment
This isn’t about centralizing power. It’s about de-duplicating, decluttering, and restoring sanity to how we oversee the most dynamic economy in the world.
Trump has always been willing to ask the basic questions others avoid. This commission would reflect that instinct: If it doesn’t make sense—why are we still doing it?
Experience Shows It Can Be Done
During my time co-chairing the NYU Global Economic Policy Forum, I brought together leaders from the Fed, Treasury, and the Council of Economic Advisers to work through the very kinds of coordination breakdowns we see today. At Fordham, I launched the Derivatives and Risk Management Symposium, which contributed to reforms that helped shape the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
The lesson is simple: when regulators are brought together in good faith—outside their silos—solutions emerge. Quickly.
A modernization commission could apply four simple, powerful questions to every existing rule:
- Does it enhance America’s global competitiveness?
- Is the language clear and understandable to everyday Americans?
- Can people access financial services safely and affordably?
- Can innovators comply without hiring an army of lawyers?
That’s not deregulation. That’s common-sense regulation.
The Moment Is Now
The GENIUS Act was a smart step forward—but it can’t be the ceiling. It should be the starting point for structural reform.
Secretary Bessent’s remarks are a warning. If we wouldn’t tolerate this level of error from the FAA, why are we accepting it from the stewards of our financial system?
As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, we must ask not only what we regulate—but how. Do we keep patching old systems, or design a framework built for tomorrow?
President Trump’s leadership has already opened the door to modernizing financial oversight. Now it’s time to walk through it—with a Commission on Common-Sense Financial Modernization as our next bold step.
That’s how you stop fighting the last war—and start winning the next one.
Alan Rechtschaffen is a lecturer of law at NYU, capital markets textbook author for Oxford University Press, investor, and cryptocurrency inventor. He has served in government policy positions, on a federal, state and local level.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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