Trump’s Labor Secretary Is Reaching Cartoonish Levels of Supervillainry

Donald Trump's labor secretary Eugene Scalia has been busy lately: 1. helping money managers shift workers’ retirement savings into high-risk private equity schemes to enrich Wall Street, 2. relaxing rules dictating that money managers work in clients' best interests, and 3. stopping the moving of workers’ savings into low-risk, environmentally sustainable investments.

Senate Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing For Eugene Scalia To Become U.S. Labor Secretary

Eugene Scalia at his confirmation hearing to become US Labor Secretary. (Astrid Riecken / Getty Images)


Sometimes if you look closely enough, you can see government officials not just making bad or negligent decisions — but actually acting like comic book villains. Three recent moves by President Trump’s labor secretary Eugene Scalia make it seem as if the agency is intent on being a Legion of Doom that funnels workers’ retirement savings to Wall Street billionaires and fossil fuel conglomerates.

First came Scalia’s announcement about private equity. He said that in order to make sure “ordinary people investing for retirement have the opportunities they need for a secure retirement,” his agency is expanding the kinds of investments that financial managers are allowed to shift workers’ retirement savings into.

The new letter allows for investments in private equity firms that charge notoriously high fees and often do not deliver returns that beat inexpensive stock index funds. Those firms also have made headlines fleecing investors, laying off workers, gutting local economies, strip mining media outlets, and creating public health and environmental disasters — all while pumping investors money into fossil fuel assets.

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