Today over 90 organizations and individuals, representing patients, workers, communities; public interest advocates, and health care researchers, called on federal authorities, as part of their review of competition in health care, to take action to curb the abuses of private equity and safeguard the ability of doctors to deliver quality care to all patients and achieve equitable health outcomes.
The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the funding method Congress chose for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing a vital agency to continue its work in holding Wall Street and predatory lenders to account, and promoting economic and racial justice. The case stems from a lawsuit against the CFPB brought by the Community Financial Services Association over a regulation that prohibited lenders from withdrawing funds from consumer accounts after two failed attempts due to lack of funds. CFSA, a lobby group for payday lenders, argued that the CFPB’s funding, which is drawn from the Federal Reserve, is unconstitutional.
With over half a trillion dollars ($553 billion) in assets under management, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) has emerged as a major financier in the energy sector, yet the firm is not required to disclose the full scope of its investments or its impact due to regulatory loopholes. A new report by Private Equity Climate Risks consortium members Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Global Energy Monitor, 93 Million: The Carbon Emissions KKR Didn’t Disclose, finds that KKR holds investments in 188 fossil fuel assets in 21 countries, spread among the firm’s ownership of 17 portfolio companies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final program of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF): Solar for All. Sixty recipients will be awarded $7 billion, with funds expected to roll out late this summer. Solar for All will create new or expand existing low-income residential and community solar programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and territories, and open up greater access to solar for Tribes through grants and low-cost financing.
Washington, D.C. – The lawsuit to block the merger of Kroger and Albertson, marks a critical step in safeguarding workers, consumers, and competition in the grocery business. This merger between two of the country’s largest grocery chains is bad news for all stakeholders, particularly in light of Albertsons’ $3.7 billion payout to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management shortly after the merger was announced in 2022.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The proposed Capital One purchase of Discover Financial Services threatens to raise credit card prices for consumers and further constrain credit access for communities around the country. Banking regulators and antitrust authorities must closely scrutinize this megamerger for the anticompetitive and anticonsumer impacts that would certainly justify blocking this takeover.