When some small business owner suggests higher bank capital rules will reduce access to credit BEWARE: it may just be @GoldmanSachs astroturfing 🧵1/10 Goldman cooked up a PR initiative, “10,000 Small Businesses” to lobby the government. And right now, those businesses are fronting for Goldman’s opposition to higher bank capital levels, which help cushion against shocks and avoid financial crises 2/10 goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10…

“If the U.S. government ... is now standing foursquare behind all bank deposits in the country, we, the people, should get something in return.”

See @monthly @CarterD about what we need for a stable, fair and equitable financial system. 🧵1/14 washingtonmonthly.com/2023/05/22/a-n… “[T]he explicit guarantee extended to the globally systemic banks is now extended to everyone,” said Renita Marcellin (@aphisha28)of @realBankRefrom. “We have this implicit guarantee for everyone, but not the rules and regulations that should be paired with [them].” 2/14

GREAT SCOOPS: Last weekend, Federal Reserve Chair Powell sought to DOWNPLAY role of failed regulation/supervision -- partly by the Fed! -- in collapse of #SiliconValleyBank

H/T @TheProspect @ddayen & @nytimes trio 🧵1/12 "the Biden administration pushed to formally spotlight shortcomings in financial regulation that they blamed for the banks’ rapid descent to insolvency." But Powell "blocked efforts to include a phrase mentioning regulatory failures" 2/12 nytimes.com/2023/03/16/bus…

GOOD NEWS: Authorities looking into possible executive malfeasance in #SiliconValleyBankCrisis

The executives lost their jobs, shareholders were zeroed out --> There was no bailout a la 2008

But we still need systemic change 🧵 1/6

nytimes.com/2023/03/14/bus… Thanks to the #BankLobbyistAct back in 2019, and the Trump-era Fed's further deregulation, the Fed took its eyes off large banks like SVB. AFR fought against that tooth and nail. 2/6

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have something in common: they both benefited from deregulation under the #BankLobbyistAct in 2018 1/5 Congress passed the law but the Trump-era regulators pushed it even further, giving authorities less oversight of these large-ish banks. Now we need action to reverse those changes and make others 2/5 ourfinancialsecurity.org/2023/03/news-r…

🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨

The subprime corporate credit market, which includes private equity’s fave, leveraged lending and CLOs, has hit $5 trillion in the US.

This problem portends bring slower growth, job losses, and possibly instability in parts of the financial sector.

🧵1/10 This lending seldom goes to productive uses, relies on sketchy accounting, and is often very opaque.

It's often to finance private equity buyouts refinance existing debt, or suck cash out of companies.

And it supports monopoly power, by driving corporate consolidation. 2/10

Politico's @vtg2 has a brilliant scoop that underscores why we need Saule Omarova as head of the OCC 🧵 1/7 politico.com/news/2021/10/2… Here we learn that the last Trump OCC boss, @BrianBrooksUS gave a secret legal imprimatur to allowing banks to hold cryptocurrency -- a wild-west asset if there ever was one -- under certain circumstances. 2/7

Today, we will be clipping videos from the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee hearing on “How Private Equity Landlords are Changing the Housing Market.”

Follow along in this thread, or watch the hearing live, starting at 10:00am:
banking.senate.gov/hearings/how-p… @SherrodBrown opens: "in plain English, that meant take advantage of the foreclosure crisis... to give Wall Street billionaires the chance to buy up homes for less than they're worth and rent them out at a steep profit."

Today, we will be clipping videos from the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs subcommittee hearing on “Protecting Companies and Communities from Private Equity Abuse.”

Follow along in this thread, or watch the hearing live, starting at 2:00pm: banking.senate.gov/hearings/prote… Shirley Smith, former sales manager at Art Van Furniture and leader with @forrespect opens: "working at Art Van was like my own little slice of the American Dream, until the PE firm T.H. Lee came in and broke up our family."

Biden nominated the brilliant immigrant Saule Omarova to oversee big banks. Opposition is a disgraceful mix:

➡️ Repub Red-baiting
➡️ #WallStreet scaremongering
➡️ Racism and sexism
➡️ Stupidity

Her real sin to them is speaking truth to Wall Street’s power

Here’s a 🧵 1/16 Omarova was born in Kazakhstan and emigrated to the US as Communism collapsed. Smart as they come, she went from a small town in central Asia to an American PhD, law degree, banking law firm of @DavisPolkReg, Bush Treasury and academia. Wow. 2/16

Today, @SenateBanking is holding the hearing "Separate and Unequal: The Legacy of Racial Discrimination in Housing."

Follow along on this thread.

banking.senate.gov/hearings/separ… @ItsLisaRice opens: "There are over 4 million instances of housing discrimination that occur each year"

"Cancelling student loan debt is the single most effective executive action that @POTUS can take to kick start this economy, help close the racial wealth gap, and lift the economic prospects of tens of millions" --@SenWarren #CancelStudentDebt "Our resolution has over 50 co-sponsors in the House. We are joined by over 325 grassroots groups. The momentum is building, the coalition is growing. With the stroke of a pen, @POTUS can provide relief to tens of millions of families." -- @RepPressley #CancelStudentDebt

Think it’s bad that U.S. companies supply repressive regimes with physical weapons?

There’s also technology, thanks to #PrivateEquity-owned government surveillance and censorship technology firms.

bloomberg.com/news/features/… After #PirateEquity🏴‍☠️ firm Francisco Partners bought technology company Sandvine, they fired staff, replaced leadership and started dealing with surveillance states & dictatorships

Between 2018-20, Sandvine raked in $100M from countries with horrible human rights track records

Under @BankersPrez Rob Nichols, American Bankers Assn gave $1.3 million to the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn a fair election after a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol

@ABABankers is their BIGGEST corporate PAC donor

#CorporateComplicity 1/4

infogram.com/1pegze7xnpvxge… ABA also financed ads in support @RepTedBudd, another objector to a fair election

@BankersPrez Nichols was enthusiastic about him back in September: 2/4

aba.com/about-us/press…

OVERSIGHT HEARING ON STATE MUNICIPAL LENDING: Why is the Fed offering so little support for state and municipal governments? Let's find out in this THREAD: @federalreserve's Kent Hiteshew continuing to evade arguments in favor of greater support for state and municipal lending ... The Fed has used 0.3% of its $500 billion facility while pumping money into corporate markets

The @federalreserve has done a damn good job of bailing out the investor class on #WallStreet during the #COVID19 pandemic: big banks, big investors, and big corporations are all doing great. And the evidence is in the data THREAD 1/8 The Fed is buying corporate bonds and it is paying ABOVE PAR for those securities. In fact in the latest data dump (today), it’s buying on average bonds at a price of 107, or 7% more than they are actually worth at face value 2/8 federalreserve.gov/reports-to-con…

Today @federalreserve Chair Powell will be appearing before the Senate Banking Committee at 10am ET. We will be clipping videos in this thread.

You can watch live here: banking.senate.gov/hearings/06/08… @SenSherrodBrown: "Across the country, Americans are outraged over the killings of #BreonnaTaylor @GeorgeFlyod #AhmaudArbery #RayshardBrooks & so many other Black Americans. They are demanding justice & an end to the systemic racism that pervades every aspect of society"

Private equity firms make tremendous profits investing in business practices and industries that reinforce systemic racism. Thread:
medium.com/@RealBankRefor… Private equity investors invest in for-profit private prisons and detention centers, prison phone calls, and electronic monitoring of ex-offenders re-entering the community. pestakeholder.org/issue/civil-ri…

We need BETTER OVERSIGHT of a #bailout for the #COVID19 crisis. It's worth $5 trillion - a quarter of GDP. We need to use Phase 4 legislation to improve oversight. Let's not play small ball. (Hat tip: @kyledcheney+@mzanona) THREAD 1/12 .@RepKatiePorter, mindful that the public remembers the #bailout of #WallStreet all too well, hits the right notes: “In the wake of the financial crisis 10 years ago, there are going to be a lot of suspicions. Can we trust the Fed and the Treasury?” 2/12 politico.com/news/2020/04/0…

Great stuff from @DamonSilvers of @AFLCIO - "Then as now, big banks and big companies wanted money without conditions. Everything seemed so much easier that way. Government officials wanted flexibility, and no unpleasantness." 1/5 prospect.org/economy/repeat… But the result was that Wall Street and company executives got what they wanted, and the public, and anyone else who was supposed to be helped, like homeowners in 2008, and workers today, ended up with crumbs, or worse. 2/5

#WallStreet sees a public health crisis as an opportunity to profit, and it shows in the McConnell #bailout plan, a multi-trillion-dollar giveaway to corporate America that @GoldmanSachs may actually run! Check it out and fight back: THREAD 1/10 washingtonpost.com/business/2020/… The plan envisions two pots of money for the bailout, $75 billion pot and a $425 billion pot. The smaller pot (for airlines and industries deemed important for national security) has some restrictions on it, but they are minimal 2/10