LETTER TO REGULATORS: Poor Underwriting Standards in Federal Reserve Emergency Lending Programs Could Lead to Support for Insolvent Firms
You can view or download the letter here.
Tag Archives: Federal Reserve
Blog: Wall Street Reaps Huge Profits from Fed as Main Street Still Waits for Help
Now that Wall Street is reporting earnings for a quarter that took place entirely during the coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that the Federal Reserve has bailed out the bankers quite effectively. Workers, families, small businesses, states, and municipalities have not fared nearly as well.
News Release: Improve Fed Facility to Help States and Municipalities Handle Coronavirus Crisis
States and localities provide critical public services, and more than 1.5 million state and local jobs have been lost since February. Without credit support like that which should be provided by this Facility, deeper job losses and service cuts can be expected as states grapple with unprecedented fiscal challenges in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Supporting states and localities is critical for economic recovery and for assisting communities impacted by the dual public health and economic crisis we face.
Letter to Regulators: Let Municipal Borrowers Access Main Street Lending Facilities
The AFR Education Fund wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve calling on them to let smaller public and municipal borrowers access the Main Street Lending Program which supports bank loans to businesses and non-profits. This would assist the many public borrowers who cannot issue
News Release: Congress Must Improve Disclosure in COVID-19 Relief Programs
Lawmakers must dramatically step up the quality and quantity of data that the executive branch releases on programs designed to provide relief from the economic downturn stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a letter from 26 labor, community, consumer, and other organizations.
News Release: Congress Must Impose Conditions on Bailouts to Protect Workers
We write on behalf of the undersigned organizations to urge you to include conditions in the next COVID-19 response legislation that require all organizations that receive federal financial support to retain workers, preserve workers’ rights, and institute policies and procedures to protect workers from exposure to the virus.
In The News: How the COVID-19 Bailout Gave Wall Street a No-Lose Casino (Rolling Stone)
In place of a heartless free market of panicked investors who might want to cut their losses and sell, the plan is to simulate real buying and selling of financial products like mortgages and bonds with directed deployments of the Fed’s endless trillions. And they will be endless … Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform said, “The Fed’s perspective on this is, they want to create normalcy.” But what does “normal” mean in an economy that may be changed forever?
Private Equity Industry Poised to Profit from the Federal Reserve’s New Lending Programs
Private equity funds could access government assistance for their portfolio companies while avoiding any responsibility to repay any debt or obligations to the public purse. Private equity firms could also tap government aid to finance leveraged buyout purchases of additional companies, using public money to load target companies with debt and drain their assets while avoiding any responsibility for paying that debt back.
Joint Letter: Fed and Treasury Should Freeze M&A Activity as Condition of Aid Money
The Fed must aggressively attempt to retain institutional credibility as a neutral actor in our economic order with regards to the distributional effects of its policies. It should not help finance a merger wave that leads to large-scale consolidation of companies which would have been healthy competitors but for temporary impacts of the current crisis.
Letter to Regulators: The Fed must reject any effort by banks to increase involvement in oil and gas
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund sent a letter to the Federal Reserve Board, urging them to avoid any actions which would permit the financial holding companies or any of their subsidiaries to directly or indirectly operate oil or gas companies. The letter highlights the manifold physical, economic, reputational and financial system risks of bank commodity holdings, risks have become even more severe with the recent dislocation in global energy markets. As these markets will be disrupted for an extended period, the letter asks the Board to firmly reject any effort by banks to use the situation with respect to defaulting loans in the energy industry to increase bank involvement in the oil and gas industry.