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.
A section-by-section of Sen. Warren’s plan to address the predatory elements of the private equity business model that harm workers, investors, and communities.
Private equity has had a disastrous impact on the retail industry, driving dozens of firms into bankruptcy, shutting down tens of thousands of stores, and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide.
Private equity firms have bought up thousands of nursing homes across the country, lowering the quality of care and harming residents.
By creating accountability for the Wall Street tycoons who lead private equity takeovers and reversing the policies that enable wealth extraction, this set of policies can protect workers, families, and communities.