AFR Conference: Financial Transaction Taxes Briefing
An AFR congressional briefing regarding how a small tax on financial transactions could raise tens of billions of dollars a year and curb dangerous high speed trading.
AFR Conference: CFPB Symposium
Independent Consumer Regulator Or Unaccountable Agency? Prominent Academic Experts Discuss the Powers, Checks and Balances, and Structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
This Week in Wall Street Reform
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – October 8, 2011 – October 14, 2011.
AFR in the News: Compilation of Volcker Rule Press Coverage
Here is a compilation of all the press coverage AFR received around the release of the Volcker Rule proposal.
Coalition Press Statement: Consumer Federation of America – Wall Street’s Oil Speculation Clobbers Main Street’s Consumers
The oil price spike of the past year, which saw gasoline prices increase by over a dollar from the summer of 2010 to the summer of 2011, will drive household expenditures on gasoline to a record average of $2900 this year. Crude oil is about $30 higher than costs or historic trends justify, generating needlessly high prices for petroleum products that will drain about $200 billion out of the economy.
AFR Press Statement: October 12th House Agriculture Committee Hearing
Today’s House Agriculture committee hearing is a loophole festival for the big swaps dealers. The Committee is considering seven different pieces of legislation. Almost every one of them would carve a significant loophole in the new derivatives protections created by the Dodd Frank Act.
AFR In the News: Regulators Advance Volcker Rule
Ben Protess (DealBook/NYT)
October 11, 2011
“Unfortunately, this initial proposal does not deliver on the promise of the Volcker Rule or the requirements of the statute,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director of American for Financial Reform, an advocacy group. …“The vagueness of the proposal, and the hundreds of questions it includes, also demonstrate that we are still in the middle of this process,” said Mr. Stanley. “It’s important to use this opportunity to strengthen the rule – and to prevent Wall Street lobbyists from weakening it still further.”
AFR Press Statement: Volcker Rule
“The Volcker Rule, with its clear ban on both proprietary trading and conflicts of interest, is one of the short list of places where the Dodd-Frank Act imposes an outright ban on Wall Street practices central to the financial crisis. Unfortunately, the proposal issued today falls well short of what the Volcker Rule could and should achieve. It is too weighted toward preserving bank freedom of action, rather than creating the changes in bank practice and culture required by the statute,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “We strongly urge major improvements in the final rule. The serious and widespread economic pain caused by the failures of our financial system, and the growing expressions of public outrage – with more and more people taking to the streets –help make it clear how important it is to get this right,” she added.
AFR in the News: Nominee to Lead Consumer Agency Clears a Hurdle
Ben Protess (DealBook/NYT)
October 6, 2011
‘We call on all senators to stand up for families and confirm Richard Cordray as C.F.P.B. director,’ said Lisa Donner, head of Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy group. ‘Will you implement the law and make sure the C.F.P.B. can do its job helping people defend themselves from loan sharks big and small? Or will you block consumer protection and instead protect wrongdoing by companies that caused the financial crisis?’
AFR in the News: How Lobbyists Are Undermining Dodd-Frank: A Case Study
Darius Tahir (The New Republic)
October 6, 2011
As Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform told me, all sorts of people rely on predictable commodity markets for their business: gas stations, businesses that supply heating oil, enterprises that order food in bulk such as confectioners, and so on. Higher volatility often ends up being passed on to businesses as a higher cost on their balance sheet, with predictable consequences