“During her debut swing through Iowa this week, the former secretary of state pledged to promote a progressive agenda, stressing that ‘the deck is stacked in favor of those already at the top.’ That language struck a chord with members of [the Democracy Alliance]… [T]he organization is urging donors to contribute to an expanded suite of advocacy groups and think tanks devoted to economic inequality including Americans for Financial Reform, the Economic Policy Institute and the National Employment Law Project.”
“Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, said Warren’s speech lays ‘down the gauntlet for people in terms of taking specific, strong steps — including steps that go beyond Dodd-Frank — to reform Wall Street. That’s very meaningful in terms of the challenge it puts to people to say whether they’re in favor of that or not,’ he said.”
“‘I see this as a win not just for too-big-to-fail, but for the extension of the regulatory perimeter in Dodd-Frank,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. “You basically had one of the largest consumer and investment banks in the country stapled onto a major industrial corporation, and because it was part of this conglomerate, it wasn’t being regulated like a major bank. When the Fed changed that regime, GE decided it wouldn’t be as profitable.'”
“We got organized… We started getting groups like – God bless ‘em – AARP, Consumer Union, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, LaRaza… More than a hundred groups got organized into Americans for Financial Reform. They pushed, and we got that consumer agency passed into law.” – Senator Elizabeth Warren, describing the struggle to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Call it the Elizabeth Warren effect. The Massachusetts Democratic senator’s anti-Wall Street crusade may help explain a small but noticeable drop in support for big banks among Democrats on Capitol Hill. The decline turns up in an analysis of voting patterns during the 113th Congress soon to be released by Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy group that promotes Wall Street accountability.”
The Department of Labor, backed by the rest of the Obama administration, has renewed its push to hold retirement advisers to tougher standards, seeking to require more brokers to act in the best interest of their clients. That effort has in turn spurred another bout of vigorous lobbying by Wall Street interests, keen on preserving the status quo… “There is just a tidal wave of opposition,” says Lisa Donner of Americans for Financial Reform, a consumer group that supports the proposed rules. “This has been a very long time coming.”
