Ten years after the financial crisis, a majority of members of the Congress that wrapped up work in 2018 voted again and again for bills pushed by the bank lobby that endanger financial stability, undermine consumer and investor protections, and enable racial discrimination in lending. The change in control of the House and a heightened awareness of the dangers posed by these actions provide an opportunity to see what changes in the 116th Congress.
Read the full story »
“The bureau was constructed really deliberately to protect ordinary people,” says Lisa Donner, the head of Americans for Financial Reform. “He’s taken it apart — dismantled it, piece by piece, brick by brick.”
Wall Street private equity funds are continuing to snap up homes to pad their expanding portfolio of rental properties. Institutional investors own nearly a quarter million single-family rental homes. Wall Street landlords often hike rents, avoid repairs, gouge tenants with fees, and are more likely to evict tenants.
Big banks have lobbied for and won massive tax breaks and increased deregulation at a time when they are already making record profits. Ordinary Americans are getting a less safe financial system, and one that is an ever-more-powerful driver of inequality and economic vulnerability. Wall Street CEOs need to be held accountable for abuses by the institutions they run, and the dangerous policies they are pushing, both openly and quietly
Over the past two years, we’ve seen a lot of handouts to Wall Street but very little change for the better. Big banks got a massive tax cut and deregulation legislation right at the time they were making record profits. Ordinary Americans got a financial system that is less safe than it used to be, one that is an ever-more-powerful driver of inequality and economic vulnerability.
Americans for Financial Reform joined 56 other organizations to express strong support for the PROTECT Students Act. This legislation would enact important protections for students and taxpayers
against predatory colleges that cheat students and leave them with large debts they cannot afford.
It also includes a far-reaching set of reforms to hold predatory colleges accountable
to both students and taxpayers.
Corporate lobbyists have put together a set of plans aimed at making it easier for executives to serve nothing but their own narrow self-interests without any scrutiny, eliminating accountability to the shareholders who actually own the company.
The financial cycle is a concept developed by economists to understand the reasons why finance-driven growth can be self-defeating. Policymakers need to rebalance our response to recessions and financial crises to prevent any repetition of the experience of 2008-2009, in which benefits flowed to Wall Street, not ordinary Americans.
In just a few months the current economic expansion will be the longest on record. But an increasing number of economists are predicting that it might be nearing its end. In preparing for an eventual economic downturn, what should be done to avoid the policy mistakes that made the 2008-2010 recession so devastating?
GENERAL TOPICS