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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Sierra Club, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, and Public Citizen released an analysis of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) report on climate-related financial risk. The analysis outlines the report’s disappointing lack of urgency and details the missed opportunities to chart a comprehensive course
Stock buybacks exacerbate the racial wealth gap, worsen economic inequality, and divert resources from the real economy which harms workers. Taxing buybacks would raise revenue and discourage companies from putting highly-paid executives ahead of the broader economy.