Blog Post Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Americans for Financial Reform

Blog Post: If we want to renew democracy, we need to tax the ultra-wealthy

Sen. Warren and Rep. Jayapal’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act of 2021 could not be a more timely reminder that the United States needs serious policy changes to address massive wealth and income inequality. Wall Street is the second-largest source of billionaire wealth, after the technology industry. While 8 million Americans slipped into poverty and half a million lives were lost to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic — all with a disproportionately large impact on communities of color — the wealth of U.S. billionaires almost doubled, up $1.3 trillion.

Blog Post: Wall Street Money, Racism and the Politics of Anti-Democracy

The billionaires and millionaires of Wall Street deploy so much money to influence American politics and society that we can easily lose track of how pervasive it is. They spread money around to campaigns, think tanks, and lobbyists. Wealthy executives finance universities, cultural institutions, and hospitals. And this historical moment has laid bare for all to see that Wall Street also finances a virulently anti-democratic strain in American politics, one that always takes aim at people of color.

Blog Post: How a Politically Connected Private Equity Firm Scored a Special Bailout for its Heavily Indebted Trucking Company

Private equity giant Apollo Global in 2019 lent large sums of money to trucking company YRC Worldwide. After Apollo’s executives reached out to the White House on getting bailouts in the spring, YRC managed, under mysterious circumstances, to be the greatest beneficiary of a special loan program for companies critical to national security.

Policy Memo: SPAC-tacular for Wall Street, For the Rest of Us, Less So

The folk legend Robin Hood was, as every child knows, the legendary outlaw who robbed from the rich to give to the poor. But in a reincarnation of a long-running Wall Street scheme, it is the wily financiers who rob from the ordinary folk holding investment accounts at Robinhood.

Blog Post: Wall Street Money in 2020 Elections

Wall Street is pumping tremendous sums of money into the 2020 elections, and there are some notable trends regarding who is getting the money and who, within the financial services industry, is contributing this cycle. At the presidential level, Wall Street is splitting its contributions close to evenly, or maybe slightly favoring Biden over Trump. At the same time, it is fairly clear that Wall Street is investing in keeping the Senate in Republican hands.

Blog Post: Unconditional Corporate Bailout Allows Private Equity to Enrich Itself by $10 billion

The private equity industry, seeing a window of opportunity following the onset of the pandemic, has taken it upon itself to have the companies that it owns issue at least $10 billion in debt solely for the purpose of paying itself. This is yet another example of private equity looting.

Blog Post: Trump’s disaster capitalism rewards real estate investor cronies with extended Opportunity Zone tax break

Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are using COVID-19 health crisis and economic recession to double down on tax cuts for the top 1 percent.

Blog Post: Private Equity Profiteering from Incarceration, Tools of Police Brutality

Private equity firms often profit from mass incarceration and they expand inherently racists business practices in communities of color. Private equity is behind manufacturers of weapons used against people protesting police brutality against the Black community.

INTERVIEW SERIES: What to expect from the private equity industry in the COVID-19 Crisis

As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds we are seeing major shifts in all areas of the economy. In a series of interviews we ask experts what they are seeing from the private equity industry and what they expect moving forward.

Blog: Can BlackRock Benefit from Inside Information from Fed Facilities?

Cross-posted from AFR’s Medium page. Can BlackRock Benefit from Inside Information from Fed Facilities? The Fed’s Agreement with BlackRock Raises Questions about Inside Information In order to respond to the ongoing pandemic, the Federal Reserve has created several facilities to purchase financial securities in order