I spoke with Carter Dougherty of the group Americans for Financial Reform … I asked him whether this kind of tinkering would necessarily lead to another financial crisis. “No. And I would not argue that. Can you argue persuasively that [actions by Trump-appointed regulators] will make the next recession more painful than it should be? That is absolutely the case.”
“This rule would free up hundreds of billions of dollars in securities and derivatives for proprietary trading purposes, completely outside of Volcker Rule coverage and in fact with an explicit exemption from proprietary trading restrictions,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. “By simply designating positions as not explicitly held for trading, banks could easily evade the Volcker Rule. These changes spell the end of meaningful constraints on proprietary trading at taxpayer supported banks, and another step in dismantling financial stability safeguards.”
“HUD’s proposed rule makes it virtually impossible for a disparate impact claim to stand in court,” says Linda Jun, senior policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “By raising the threshold for disparate impact, the new rule creates a nearly unsurmountable bar for plaintiffs to prove discriminatory outcomes and makes it much easier for defendants to shield themselves from any responsibility for discrimination.”
Consumer watchdog groups urged the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a letter sent today to take action immediately to implement the payment provisions in its payday lending rule, whose compliance date is August 19, 2019.
This new paper does not contradict previous comprehensive studies finding that liquidity in the corporate bond market has been robust and has shown no signs of deterioration over the period in which the Volcker Rule was implemented. The OFR staff working paper does find evidence that banks affected by the Volcker Rule charge significantly lower markups for newly issued bonds they underwrite (that are exempt from most Volcker Rule restrictions on proprietary trading) than they do for other types of bond trades covered by the Volcker Rule.
The Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) Language Access Task Force strongly opposes the decision announced yesterday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to remove the question about a borrower’s language preference from the revised Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). The Task Force members include the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Center for Responsible Lending, Connecticut Fair Housing Center, Consumer Action, Empire Justice Center, NAACP, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), National Consumer Law Center, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and National Fair Housing Alliance.
“Did anyone take Internet Security 101?” says Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “I always tell my elderly parents, whatever you do, don’t click on anything! How do you know it’s legit? How do you know it isn’t a scam?”
Vox article quotes Heather Slavkin-Corzo, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform and director of capital markets policy for the AFL-CIO: “When a private equity firm steps in, it’s a classic case of ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ … They have a real short-term focus on extracting as much cash as possible, as quickly as possible.”
New report revealing how in the last 10 years, a staggering 597,000 people working at retail companies owned by private equity firms and hedge funds have lost their jobs. An estimated additional 728,000 indirect jobs have been lost at suppliers and local businesses, meaning Wall Street’s gamble on retail has led to more than 1.3 million job losses in total.
In practice, that meant they often sold off real estate holdings, cut workers’ pay and benefits, and did away with jobs to turn a quick profit for investors, according to Heather Slavkin Corzo, a senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform and the director of capital markets policy for the labor union AFL-CIO. “When a private equity firm steps in, it’s a classic case of ‘heads I win, tails you lose,” Corzo said. “They have a real short-term focus on extracting as much cash as possible, as quickly as possible.”