Category Archives: Financial Reform News

100 dollar bills - Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on Unsplash

Report: Wall Street Pumps $1.9 Billion into Political Process in 2017-18 Election Cycle

The $1.9 billion Wall Street poured into American politics includes contributions to campaign committees and leadership PACs ($922 million) and lobbying expenditures ($957 million). The money backed a massive rush of pro-industry nominees and legislation over the last two years, at a time when the biggest banks made $100 billion in profits for the first time.

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Joint Letter: Letter to HUD about OIG Report on DASP Loans

On April 29, 2019, AFR Education Fund and several coalition partners sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about our concerns with the Office of Inspector General’s April 9, 2019 report regarding the servicing of mortgage loans eventually sold through

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AFR Report: Finance for a Fair Economy – Managing the Financial Cycle

The financial cycle is a concept developed by economists to understand the reasons why finance-driven growth can be self-defeating. Policymakers need to rebalance our response to recessions and financial crises to prevent any repetition of the experience of 2008-2009, in which benefits flowed to Wall Street, not ordinary Americans.

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AFR-CEPR Research: Small Donations Show Growing Power of Grassroots Vs. Wall Street

New members of Congress demonstrated substantially less reliance on money from the financial services industry than incumbents who won re-election in 2018. First-term Democratic members of the House raised, on average, 17 percent of the money for their campaign committees from small donors, compared with 9.4 percent by Democratic incumbents who won re-election.