Americans for Financial Reform

News Category: Press Releases & Statements

Preventing the Next Financial Crisis and Bailout: “Too Big to Fail” Policy

When a financial institution fails, only insured depositors should be rescued by the government.  Bailouts for other parties, such as shareholders and bond holders, are an unacceptable use of the public treasury to rescue private risk-takers, functioning as little more than wealth transfers from poor and middle-class taxpayers to wealthy investors and executives. History demonstrates

Why Auto Dealers Should Not Be Exempted From the CFPA

The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) explains why auto dealers must be covered by the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Download this information as a PDF. While the vehicles themselves have never been better, predatory auto sales and financing practices have never been worse. Today, a majority of auto dealer profits are derived not

New Jersey Consumers Take to the Streets to say “Enough is Enough!”

They bring signs, banners, leaflets, and stories of foreclosures and unemployment.  Individually, they’re mothers, fathers, retirees, hard workers who are in between jobs.  Together, they’re a force to be reckoned with, as local AIG and Goldman Sachs offices recently discovered. They’re the consumers organized by New Jersey Citizen Action, and they’re not going to rest

It’s Not Such a Wonderful Life…

BanksterUSA.org has made the clever video below using everyone’s favorite holiday movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” to remind us of the woes facing many families this holiday season. In the midst of so much foreclosure, debt, and job loss, whose side are your representatives in Congress on? Mr. Potter’s side, or George Bailey’s? Give your

Regulating the Derivatives Market is Crucial to Our Economic Security

Unregulated derivatives trading were a major cause of the economic crisis and loss of homes, jobs and retirement savings. Inadequate regulation of derivatives was also a major contributor to last years energy price bubble. The volume of derivatives trading is enormous.  According to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) survey, the outstanding amount of

Consumers Lost $65 Million to Banks on Black Friday

The Center for Responsible Lending warned consumers this Black Friday to watch out for overdraft loans.  Every day, consumers lose $65 in overdraft fees to banks.  As CRL explains: At $24 billion per year in fees, unfair overdraft practices transfer funds from the accounts of hardworking Americans into the coffers of their banks and credit