New York Post: Biden's Soviet-raised Pick for Treasury Post Sought End to Banking 'As We Know It'

Article by Callie Patteson in New York Post

President Biden’s controversial pick to be the Treasury Department’s comptroller of the currency is a USSR-born and educated professor who has praised the former Soviet Union’s lack of a gender pay gap while recently advocating for ending banking “as we know it” by moving Americans’ finances from private banks to the Federal Reserve. 

Saule Omarova, a Cornell University law professor, was tapped by the president Sept. 23 to oversee the nation’s biggest banks and federal savings associations, with the White House calling her “one of the country’s leading academic experts on issues related to regulation of systemic risk and structural trends in financial markets.”

If approved, Omarova would be the first female and non-white person in the position. 

Her nomination has sparked criticism from Republicans, who say she is seeking to “radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance” — and reportedly Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary raised concerns about her taking the post.

In an early 2021 paper titled “The People’s Ledger,” Omarova argued for making private banks “non-depository lenders,” changing banking “as we know it.”

“Banks, in other words, will not be ‘special’ any more,” she wrote, advocating for separating their lending function from their monetary function. 

Shortly following her nomination, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, said he had “serious reservations about her nomination.” 

“Ms. Omarova has called for ‘radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance’ including nationalizing retail banking and having the Federal Reserve allocate credit,” he said in a statement. 

“She has also advocated for ‘effectively end[ing] banking as we know it.

’ In light of these, and other extreme leftist ideas, I have serious reservations about her nomination.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, also shared reservations, calling out Biden for “placating his radical base” with the nomination.

“President Biden is once again placating his radical base by nominating Saule Omarova as the head of the OCC,” McHenry said. “I am concerned Professor Omarova will prioritize a progressive social agenda over the core mission of the OCC — supervising and managing risk in our financial system.” 

Yellen, too, was skeptical about the nomination, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Omarova has been slammed in the past for appearing to praise and support Soviet Union ideals.

In 2019, she posted to Twitter in support of the “old USSR” where there was ......

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