Fact Sheets and Reports Archives - Americans for Financial Reform

Report: Who is Behind the Curtain? Breaking Down Trade Associations that Fight Tenants and Hurt Housing Affordability

AFREF, in partnership with Capital Strategies for the Common Good, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, and Bargaining for the Common Good, have produced a report highlighting how, in recent decades, housing has become increasingly commodified and financialized, while tenants in communities across the country are being crushed under unsustainable rent burdens and a shortage of affordable housing.

Fact Sheet: Crypto Harms by the Numbers

The crypto industry paints a picture of crypto as a tool for financial inclusion and economic prosperity. However, when one looks at the actual numbers, the industry’s record tells quite a different story – one of fraud, crime, scams, and economic hardship. Straightforward facts and figures outline the scope and scale of financial loss and harm that the crypto industry has inflicted on consumers and investors in the U.S. and around the world.

Fact Sheet: Famous Last Words on S. 2155

Bankers, lobbyists, elected officials uttered some choice words on 2018’s bank deregulation legislation and the impact of mid-sized banks on financial stability that belong in any good collection of famous last words.

Fact Sheet: Powell Owns This Crisis

We now know that Fed Chair Jerome Powell sought to head off questions about responsibility and accountability around March 12, the day federal regulators resorted to a blanket deposit guarantee to stop the crisis from spreading. Perhaps that’s because Powell has an extensive record supporting deregulation and lighter supervision, even before he was confirmed to head the central bank.

Factsheets: Climate Vulnerability and Banking

Climate change is a risk multiplier that exacerbates racial and economic inequality, and it is progressing at an alarming rate. Acute and increasingly frequent climate-related disasters, such as wildfires and hurricanes, as well as chronic issues such as heat stress, sea level rise, and drought,

MEMO: Senate Hearing Today on Proposed Kroger-Albertsons Merger

Today, the Senate will hold a hearing on the proposed acquisition of grocery chain Albertsons by Kroger, the nation’s largest standalone grocery retailer. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), both skeptics of the merger, will preside over the hearing.

Research Memo: New AFR Research Estimating Minimum Number of Private Equity-Owned Housing Units

Private equity firms have become some of the country’s biggest corporate landlords. Americans for Financial Reform estimated that as of June 2022, at a minimum, private equity firms owned real estate rented by around 1.6 million families.

Report: Lessons Learned from the Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program, a critical pillar of the CARES Act pandemic relief legislation, failed to equitably distribute money despite an avowed goal of focusing on small businesses, according to a new report from AFREF and six other public interest organizations and labor unions.

Report: Private Equity Ownership of U.S. Power Plants: A Hidden Climate Threat

Private equity investment firms have quietly bought up close to 700 predominantly fossil fuel-fired electric power plants, making these Wall Street investment houses major greenhouse gas emitters.

Fact Sheet: Summary of SEC’s Private Funds Proposals

AFREF released a fact sheet summarizing the SEC’s two sets of rule proposals that will
provide investors and regulators with greater transparency into several aspects of the $18 trillion private fund industry.