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Wall Street Wants Your 401(k) to Bail Out Private Markets
The new Trump proposal to deregulate the types of investments workers can make with their retirement accounts is a bad policy idea that looks almost engineered to bail out Wall Street at the expense of everyone else.
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The Carried Interest Tax Loophole Is Even Bigger Than We Thought
The carried interest tax loophole has probably been shielding far more Wall Street profits from taxes than had long been officially estimated. The private equity industry reaps as much as $10 billion a year in tax giveaways through the carried interest loophole. New research from The Budget Lab at Yale finds that closing the loophole…
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Deeply Flawed Crypto Bill Inches Forward in Senate
The latest version of the Senate crypto legislation was released late on May 11, just two days before the bill gets debated and voted on in the Senate Banking Committee. Negotiations on this bill have lasted months, largely behind closed doors and the crypto industry had a front seat at the drafting table. Even many…
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States Can Put the Brakes on Landlord Collusion and Junk Fees
The growing dominance of corporations within the housing sector has contributed to the continued rise of unaffordable rents, junk fees, and other tenant abuses. These excesses have sparked a resurgence of antitrust and consumer protection enforcement actions against extractive Wall Street landlords and the tech platforms that enable them, including the 2024 lawsuit against RealPage.
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Crypto Money Laundering is a Feature Not a Bug that Poses National Security Risks
More criminals, cartels, human traffickers, terrorists, rogue states, and sanctions evaders are using cryptocurrencies to hide and launder transactions and profits than ever.
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Banking Regulators Are Making it Easier for Big Banks to Hide Risks
The Federal Reserve recently weakened the rating system it uses to supervise the country’s largest banks, making it easier for banks to pursue riskier investments that could imperil the financial system. These ratings help determine whether giant financial institutions are considered “well managed.” Banks that keep that label can pursue acquisitions, take on more risks,…
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Trump Administration’s Banking Deregulation Puts Entire Economy at Risk
Financial headlines these days are dominated by chaos and uncertainty. Families across the country face soaring prices that have only gotten worse with the war in Iran. Worries abound over an artificial intelligence bubble, oil price shocks, gyrations in crypto, and rising default rates in the private credit markets. And economists have said that we
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Surging Crypto Crimewave Should be a Congressional Wake up Call
Last week, the FBI reported that online crypto crime continues to surge and is taking a bigger bite out of people’s pockets than ever.
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AFREF Commentary: 4 Reasons Why We Should Ban the Use of Credit Scores in Property Insurance
While people might assume that insurance companies set their property insurance rates solely or primarily by evaluating the risk profile of individual homes, a homeowner’s credit characteristics are often a bigger driver of the price of homeowner’s insurance. As Federal Reserve researchers put it in a new report, insurers often price rates for “who is…
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SpaceX Took Official Step To Go Public, But Being a Public Company Isn’t What It Used To Be
Elon Musk’s SpaceX took the first official step to go public yesterday by confidentially filing paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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Crypto’s Push for Tokenization Could Put the Financial System at Risk
Wall Street and crypto are awash in chatter about the industry’s latest financial buzzword, tokenization. In essence, tokenization creates a digital version of other assets — mostly company stock but also potentially real estate or artworks.
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Led by Texas AG, Red States Lock in Another Win for Corporate Insiders
Vanguard settled a lawsuit Texas and ten other red states brought alleging the largest asset managers in the world undermined the coal industry in violation of antitrust laws. Even though many legal experts have criticized these types of arguments, Vanguard caved, agreeing to a $29.5 million payment and terms that signal it won’t give corporate…
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More Cracks Emerge in Private Credit’s $1.8 Trillion Iceberg
Even more stories broke this week that troubles in the private credit market are mounting. The increasing instability in these largely unregulated and opaque non-bank loans is an ominous sign that the hidden risks are starting to spiral.
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Real Reform to Confront Private Equity Takeover of the Nation’s Housing
Rising housing costs are a critical driver of the current affordability crisis, and they cannot be addressed without genuinely confronting the role of private equity and big investors buying up the nation’s housing stock.
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As Dark Markets Flash Danger Signs, Wall Street Shifts its Sights to Your Retirement Savings
There is trouble brewing in opaque private markets. That’s why Wall Street firms are pushing full steam ahead to pull working families into these high-risk, high-fee investments. The administration, Congress, and private equity industry pretend that they are democratizing investing by letting retirement savers and mom and pop investors into the exciting world of private…
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