The Biden administration is nominating law professor Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the main federal regulator for national banks. The announcement is being reported as “handing a win to advocates for stricter financial rules,” but the implications of Omarova’s nomination are much broader than whether any federal agency should regulate banks more strictly.

In a forthcoming Vanderbilt Law Review article, Omarova envisions an “ultimate ‘end-state’ whereby central bank accounts fully replace—rather than compete with— private bank deposits.” Obviously, fully replacing private bank accounts with those at a central bank leaves no room for private banks.

It gets better.

Previously, Omarova explained that the problem with large private banks is that they:

hold so much power now and they move so much money through their own channels that it is effectively impossible through just rules and some enforcement to really shape what it is they’re doing. What we should be really thinking about is, what should we do to shift that balance and have the Fed and have the Treasury and have maybe other public institutions maybe take a greater part in the infrastructure itself, in the provision of financial services. We need to bring more adults into the room, the adults meaning the public.

This passage nicely summarizes the perverse logic that critics of free enterprise use, and it is this line of reasoning that the Senate should question if Omarova has a confirmation hearing.

Omarova does not trust the public. She rejects the decisions made by millions of people. She wants to rely on “adults” who share her own beliefs to “shape” where all the money goes. According to Omarova’s viewpoint, it is preferable for a committee of government officials – a select few who literally hold power over everyone else – to control money and credit rather than to decentralize that control to private individuals, people who can only continue providing financial services by satisfying the public.

This view represents a fundamental conflict between those who favor economic freedom and those who prefer to have a ruling class direct everyone else’s economic decisions.

If they hold a confirmation hearing, the Senate should ask Omarova for examples of a society that has followed her approach and made more people better off than ones based on free enterprise. It is true that the free enterprise systems are not perfect, but the fact remains that there are countless examples of Omarova’s preferred approach making millions of people miserable.