But too much of what should be plumbing to serve the “real economy” of households and businesses has turned into an unstable, money-extracting casino dominated by powerful giants.
Advocacy
Resources
Updates
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Statement: Oscar Valdés Viera, Senior Policy Analyst of Private Equity & Capital Markets at Americans for Financial Reform statement on administration’s proposal to weaken oversight of shadow banks
The Trump administration announced that it will weaken one of the most important post 2008 financial crisis tools designed to stop shadow banks from capsizing the financial system.
AFR in the News
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The Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement at NYU School of Law: Major Overhaul or Finetuning Regulatory Solutions?: Evaluating the Impact of Regulatory Reductions Under Trump 2.0
In 2025, bank regulators took a variety of actions that might appear to resemble the “light touch” regulatory landscape that contributed to the 2008 crisis. Americans for Financial Reform believe that the roll-back of prudential safeguards is “setting the stage for the next financial crisis by making banks more fragile and more susceptible to collapse.”…
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Medium: The Ouroboros Economy: How Corporate America, Wall Street, and AI Companies Are Eating Their Own Customers
Sources and references: World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025; Bureau of Economic Analysis PCE data (Q4 2025); Federal Reserve Bank of Boston credit card research (Hagler and Patki, 2025); Federal Reserve Bank of New York Household Debt and Credit Report (Q4 2025); Goldman Sachs AI productivity analysis (2026); National Bureau of Economic Research…
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NH Journal: New Fed Rule Could Open 401(k)s to Private Equity, Crypto Investments
Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy group that opposes the proposed rule, says the DOL is rushing to implement a flawed proposal that will benefit the alternative assets sector rather than 401(k) owners.
Letters to Congress: AFR Opposes H.R. 8286, an Anti-ESG Bill
