Public pensions hold trillions of dollars of workers’ capital — wages earned by teachers, firefighters, nurses, and public workers who keep our society running. But this money is under attack.
The Business Roundtable’s most recent diatribe against a modest shareholder check on the power of corporate boards and executives came just in time for Tuesday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on proxy advisors — firms that provide research and proxy voting recommendations to shareholders.
Another Musk/Big Tech giveaway occurred this week as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped its case against PayPal for skirting prepaid card rules that apply to gift cards and re-chargeable payment apps.
Let’s be clear: Hal Scott’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—because the Fed has been running a deficit—isn’t just a bad policy recommendation; it’s an intentionally backward argument that advocates harming the very people the financial system has historically exploited.
This week, the Trump administration withdrew a 2022 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) lawsuit against MoneyGram for its persistent failure to comply with consumer protection laws by failing to promptly deliver transfers, resolve disputes, and implement policies to comply with the law. The Trump CFPB’s refusal to hold MoneyGram accountable for its repeated and ongoing unlawful behavior is part of a pattern of willfully ignoring lawbreaking and letting financial scofflaws off the hook.
Healthcare has become a nightmare: rising costs, denied care, and mounting patient debt, all while Wall Street rakes in massive profits. On February 24, 2025, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) and the Health and Political Economy Project (HPEP) hosted a webinar featuring physician and researcher Dr. Victor Roy, economist Lenore Palladino, and longtime physician and healthcare policy expert Dr. Donald Berwick.