FACT SHEET: J. Crew Succumbs to Bankruptcy after Private Equity Debt, Financial Looting
Preppy retailer cannot survive retail and coronavirus economic downturn saddled by private equity-imposed financial burdens.
Category Archives: Fact Sheets and Reports
Fact Sheet: Private Equity Vultures Eye Real Estate During Coronavirus Crisis
Now, with 26 million workers unemployed and countless businesses closing indefinitely, private equity firms are salivating at the potential business opportunities that might arise from the expected economic fallout. Unless we take immediate action to prevent it, private equity firms will take advantage of this unprecedented crisis to make even greater asset grabs.
“Coronavirus distress is the ‘opportunity of the century’ for real estate investors,” according to a recent headline in The Real Deal, a New York real estate news publication. The article quotes Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman saying “But I will tell you, real-estate investors — when you take the emotion out of it — many of them have been waiting for this for a decade.”
Policy Memo: Federal Reserve Lending Facilities for Private Companies and Securitizations
AFR Education Fund released the following policy memo analyzing the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented move to provide direct credit to states and localities. A pdf copy of the memo is available here. Review of New Federal Reserve Facilities On April 9th the Federal Reserve announced six
Policy Memo: Federal Reserve Lending Facility for States and Localities
AFR Education Fund released the following policy memo analyzing the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented move to provide direct credit to states and localities.
Factsheet: Cancel Federal Student Loans to Provide Short and Long-Term Stimulus Amid Pandemic
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating economic impact, Americans for Financial Reform calls on Congress and the U.S. Department of Education to use their authority to cancel federal student loan debt. Cancelling debt would be a powerful and efficient way to immediately relieve pressure on distressed borrowers, boost consumer spending at a time when the economy is contracting, and reduce hardship on people who lose income because of the pandemic and efforts to fight its spread.
Fact Sheet: Private Equity Overstates Returns, Downplays Risks
The private equity industry promotes itself as serving the investing public — including union and other pension funds — by providing reliably superior returns than the stock market. But the reality is that PE investments are not necessarily better performers, their promises too often rely
Fact Sheet: Private Equity-Owned Payday Lenders Profit Off Trapping People in Debt
Private equity has pushed into the high-priced consumer loan industry, offering payday and other consumer loans that profit off trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt. Private equity firms own over 5,000 storefront payday and online lenders that often make loans at 300% annual percentage
Report: The Trump Administration, Wall Street, and the Next Recession
This report discusses how the long-term trend to Wall Street-led growth has been harming the public, and some of the ways the Trump Administration is contributing to it. In particular, the report discusses how today’s deregulation of Wall Street will make the next recession worse and increase the likelihood of repeating the bailouts we saw in response to the 2008 crisis.
Fact Sheet: Wall Street Private Equity Landlords Snapping Up Apartment Buildings
Private equity owns over a million U.S. apartment units. Tenants pay a price when corporate landlords buy their buildings. In some cases, private equity buyers have pushed out lower-income tenants – through rent hikes, eviction threats, and more – to flip buildings into high-rent properties to sell for big profits.
Fact Sheet: Continuing Threat of Private Equity Investment in Single Family Rentals
Wall Street private equity funds are continuing to snap up homes to pad their expanding portfolio of rental properties. Institutional investors own nearly a quarter million single-family rental homes. Wall Street landlords often hike rents, avoid repairs, gouge tenants with fees, and are more likely to evict tenants.