Important piece. Thanks for posting. The disconnect between the largely white elite of the regulatory and political class in DC and the majority of DC residents always stuck out when I lived there. Obviously, a challenge with financial regulation is that the pipeline is Wall Street, white shoe law firms, and academic finance, none of which has a particularly good track record on diversity. Equally obviously, that's not a valid excuse.

One minor correction. Mike Powell was chair of the FCC, not FTC. (Unless there was someone else with the same name.) Mozelle Thompson was an FTC commissioner in the 90s. And there have been at least three other African Americans on the FCC -- Geoffrey Starks, Mignon Clyburn and Andy Barrett. Still not a sterling record over 86 years.