In The News: US trustbusters: why Joe Biden is taking on private equity

Natalia Renta, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform, a not for profit organisation, says: “The private equity lobby is bound to throw up smokescreens about what antitrust law can and cannot do, but that misses the point entirely. Higher prices and lower-quality care leading to increased mortality — both characteristics of sectors where private equity has amassed a presence — are indicators of market power, and that is precisely what antitrust law addresses.”

News Release: Voting Record Highlights Lawmaker Stands on Financial Reform in 117th Congress

Americans for Financial Reform released a record of votes during the first session of the 117th Congress regarding consumer protections, climate financial regulation, and Wall Street accountability. The report includes a selection of votes on legislation and on confirmations of President Biden’s nominees to positions important for financial regulation and Wall Street accountability. 

News Release: Coalition tells SEC Rules Must Stop Wall Street Greenwashing & Other Exaggerated Claims that Mislead Investors

More than 90 organizations—including the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE) and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) —submitted two comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today urging the agency to enshrine stronger rules for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing to stop the current practice of “greenwashing.”

SEC Building

Letters to Regulators: Letter to the SEC in Response to Request for Comment on Certain Information Providers Acting as Investment Advisors

AFREF sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission supporting its proposal to treat index providers as investment advisers given the many traits of index providers that resemble investment advice.

Such proposals are necessary as index funds have grown to become a multi-trillion dollar industry but one whose decisions to include or exclude issuers from the indices, and which many fund managers must closely follow, remain opaque and feature a number of conflicts-of-interest. 

Crypto skeptics have been debating online for years. Now they’re organizing.

Hays said other Washington advocacy groups are putting more time and money into research, but he said he’s used to being outnumbered. “This is pretty typical with progressive advocacy work,” he said. “As a general rule, there are fewer of us than there are on the other side. And crypto has grown so dramatically that a lot of different advocacy organizations have been slow to recognize it.” 

Blog: Congress Takes Historic Step to Tax Stock Buybacks

Schumer uttered those words as the Senate was on the brink of passing the Inflation Reduction Act—the compromise reconciliation bill that resulted from prolonged, heated negotiations amongst Democrats.  The version that will go to President Biden includes something brand-new in U.S. economic policy: a one percent excise tax on stock buybacks, which reached an astonishing $882 billion last year.