“[I]t is a telling sign of just how dysfunctional the American economy has become that some of the nation’s biggest private equity firms are now heavily invested in the payday loan business and its slightly more respectable cousin, subprime installment lending. A new report from Americans for Financial Reform and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project details dozens of such arrangements involving some of the biggest names on Wall Street and the scuzziest operations on Main Street.”
“Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-Va., the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, introduced a bill last week that sells out students to corporate interests ready to get rich off taxpayer-backed education dollars. A bill reauthorizing the Higher Education Act should be a real opportunity to help students; this one just makes their lives worse by raising repayment costs for struggling borrowers, letting institutions that scam students off the hook, and narrowing relief for defrauded students.”
“[Director Cordray’s] departure will be ‘a huge loss,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. If Trump appoints a new director who is indifferent, or even hostile, to consumer issues, she said, ‘It will be incredibly costly to the American public.’”
“Trump and Republican lawmakers have long characterized Cordray as an enemy of the people — a bureaucrat run amok, imposing his autocratic will on gentle, kindhearted businesses that only want to compete freely and fairly for people’s patronage… ‘And people who don’t understand what the bureau does might believe that,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘But if you describe the bureau’s work to people… they overwhelmingly support it.'”
“[T]he Senate cabal has masked their handout by claiming to focus on relief for small community banks… [But] the proposal ‘includes over a dozen measures that would ease rules on banks, and a few minor changes for consumers that ought to be a given,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, the main pro-regulatory advocacy group in D.C.”
“‘This vote marks a truly shameful moment in Congress,’ [AFR’s] Amanda Werner, who plays the Monopoly Man, said in a statement. ‘Just weeks after holding hearings on scandals of historic proportion, the Senate granted Equifax and Wells Fargo a Get Out of Jail Free card. Rather than pass meaningful legislation to help the 145 million Americans harmed by the data breach, a slim Republican majority chose to take away our only chance at holding financial giants accountable.’”
