The briefing paper linked below uses Penn-Wharton and IRS data to show how the financial sector is a big winner from the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with almost $250 billion in tax benefits over the next decade flowing to financial firms
“The news of the Department’s scheme to grant only partial relief to scammed students is just one more piece of an abundance of evidence that the Trump Administration and the DeVos Department of ED care more for the proprietary institutions that break the law than they do for the students they defraud,” said Alexis Goldstein, Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for a Financial Reform. “For Secretary DeVos, it’s predatory companies first, students last.”
At a time when millions of everyday Americans are struggling with stagnant wages, Republicans decided to use the tax code to reward its contributors. Polls have shown that the Republican tax bill is deeply unpopular. Voters recognize it for what it is: a giant holiday gift to Wall Street and the super rich that the rest of us will be paying off for decades.
“H.R. 3312 dramatically restricts oversight of some of the largest banks in the country, increasing risks to regional economies and to financial stability, and therefore to the prosperity of families and communities.”
AFR sent a letter opposing a bill that would eliminate the independent voice of proxy advisory firms and unfairly disadvantage shareholders as compared to firm management.
“[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.”
Private equity moguls have invested heavily in the payday and installment lending. The development puts private equity firms in the position to profit from efforts by payday lenders to roll back an important new rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
New report offers details on over 20 cases of private equity investment in payday lending, and how the new owners or investors seek greater rewards from this predatory business.
A bipartisan majority of lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee last week rejected a series of public interest amendments in order to advance a bill full of gifts to banks.
AFR sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing multiple bills that would deregulate big banks and strip away investor protections. AFR Letter Re HFSC 12-12 Markup