Maryland Democratic Gov. Kamala Harris says Vice President Kamala Harris will prioritize antitrust and regulatory policies in developing her own if she wins the presidency in November Small business growth and large industry competition. Wes Moore said Wednesday.
“I think making sure that we both support our small businesses and make it easier for small businesses to grow and make it easier for our large industries to compete within our state and this country,” Moore said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It’s going to be important for Harris.”
The pro-growth, pro-competition approach to business that a Harris administration is likely to take will be radically different from the aggressive trust-destroying and merger-sceptic tenets of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda.
“As the vice president thinks about future administration, there are going to be different dynamics that are going to arise, which are going to require different philosophies,” Moore said. “There are going to be different sociopolitical and political dynamics that are going to arise that are going to require different backgrounds, different perspectives. and a different vision.”
Moore, a close ally of Biden and Harris and a rising star in the Democratic Party, rose to national prominence following the collapse of a Baltimore bridge in March.
But he also previously worked as an investment banker at Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, where he managed Robin Hood Foundationis a New York-based anti-poverty charity that gets much of its support from Wall Street.
The Harris campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Moore’s remarks.
But his comments Tuesday may satisfy the hopes of Wall Street dealmakers who are already optimistic that a potential Harris administration, while firmly rooted in progressive economic traditions, could tone down the aggressive antitrust that characterized the Biden presidency. the priority of the system.
Democratic megadonors such as IAC Chairman Barry Diller and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have even publicly called on Harris to commit to succeeding FTC Chair Lina Khan. The latter has been at the forefront of crackdowns on big deals in the past.
U.S. presidents are not allowed to arbitrarily fire the leaders of independent agencies such as the FTC, and Harris has shown no signs of splitting with the FTC under the Biden-Harris administration.
But if presidents choose, they can replace the chair of an independent committee, such as the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, with another committee member, thereby changing the agency’s priorities.
Diller and Hoffman’s public lobbying efforts reflect a growing view in corporate America that Harris may be willing to take a less aggressive approach to regulating big business, especially when it comes to mergers.
“This ‘big is bad’ hostility (from Biden) will be brushed aside in a potential Harris administration,” said George Paul, a partner at law firm White & Case. Kroger merges with Albertsons. “I don’t think Harris is going to go that far. I think she’s going to take a step back.”
Harris has been running for president for just over two weeks, and she’s still formulating her policy platform. At the same time, her corporate rhetoric echoed some of Biden’s. But not all.
“I will crack down on price gouging and lower costs,” Harris told a rally in Atlanta in July. “We will ban more hidden fees and unexpected late fees that banks and other companies use to increase profits.”
Beyond the campaign trail, how Harris will govern if she wins the White House remains an open question in many ways.
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