Dennis M. Kelleher

Dennis M. Kelleher is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Better Markets, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes the economic security, opportunity and prosperity of the American people by advocating for the public interest in the US and global financial markets and by fighting for a stable, balanced financial system that supports the real economy and rising living standards. Mr. Kelleher has held several senior staff positions in the United States Senate: Chief Counsel and Senior Leadership Advisor to the Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee; Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel to a Senate Committee; and, a Legislative Director for a senior Senator. Mr. Kelleher was also a litigation partner with the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and served in the U. S. Air Force.  He is an honors graduate of Brandeis University and Harvard Law School.

By this expert

Financial Reform Is Working, But Deregulation That Incentivizes One-Way Bets Is Sowing the Seeds of Another Catastrophic Financial Crash

Paper Conference paper | | Oct 2017

The deregulatory zeal of the 1990s and 2000s has returned to the US and the post-Brexit plans to protect the City in the UK sound like the pre-crash light-touch mentality that fueled global regulatory arbitrage.  As a result, a foremost “challenge of our time” is to stop “subsidizing more one-way bets” and “doubling down on failure.”

Featuring this expert

“Crypto is a Fraud on the Public”: Financial Watchdog Explains Ties Between Crypto and the Banking Crisis

Article | May 11, 2023

Dennis Kelleher, co-founder of Washington DC-based financial watchdog Better Markets, explains how Main Street gets hurt by the ongoing banking turmoil and why crypto is the last place anybody should be running to for safety.

Wall Street Is Better at Gambling Than Finance

Video | Aug 8, 2018

Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets explains how we can stop the financial industry from gaming Washington

When Meritocracy Breeds Greed

Video | Jul 18, 2018

Journalist Steven Brill discusses how the U.S. lost sight of the common good

Reawakening

From the Origins of Economic Ideas to the Challenges of Our Time

Event Plenary | Oct 21–23, 2017

INET gathered hundreds of new economic thinkers in Edinburgh to discuss the past, present, and future of the economics profession.