what can we do about it?
Whether White, Black, or Brown, we all want to build a better future for our children. But big banks and Wall Street billionaires have rigged the rules of the economy.
The big banks and hedge fund managers spend millions on lobbyists and millions more on political contributions.
The financial industry targets Black and Brown families for predatory lending and higher interest rates for their car loans and mortgages.
Wall Street executives use loopholes to pay lower taxes than teachers, and hedge fund and private equity managers squeeze more and more for themselves out of companies while reducing benefits and eliminating jobs. The gains go to those at the top, while millions of families are still struggling to get back on their feet.
The American people agree: we need to re-write the rules to make the economy work for working families, not just billionaires and big banks. And that means standing up to Wall Street.
Here’s a start:
Break up the banks
Today Wall Street is dominated by giant “too big to fail” banks. We need to restore the firewall between risky investment banking and “boring” commercial banking. Read on >
A “public option” for banking
It’s time to stop relying on the big banks and predatory lenders, and expand access to fair consumer banking services through “a public option” like postal banking and public banks. Read on >
Tax Wall Street trades
Ordinary people pay sales taxes on goods and services. We need to tax Wall Street when they buy and sell financial securities to encourage long-term investment and raise revenue. Read on >
Stop stock buybacks
It’s time to stop corporate executives from buying back the company’s stock to juice share prices and pass the cash to themselves and wealthy shareholders. It’s manipulating the market, plain and simple. Read on >
Rein in executive pay
Even after their reckless behavior caused the financial crisis, traders and executives are still paid mind-boggling sums. We need to end taxpayer subsidies for corporate bonuses, and force corporations to reveal the ratio between their CEO’s salary and their median employee’s. Read on >
End the “carried interest” tax loophole
We need to eliminate the “carried interest” loophole, which allows financial executives to pay a lower tax rate than teachers, nurses, and firefighters. Read on >
Curb Wall Street’s influence in Washington
We need to cub the big Wall Street banks’ influence in Washington through comprehensive ethics reform to fix the broken system so our elected officials work for everyone. Read on >
But that’s not all. The financial industry has held a number of areas of the economy for ransom:
Taxes
Our tax system is rigged in favor of Wall Street and the super rich, and the rest of us pay the price. Congress can change this by closing loopholes and restructuring tax policies to reward work, not wealth. Read on >
Private Equity
Much like the corporate raiders of the 1980s, these private Wall Street firms are increasingly buying control over businesses, housing, education, consumer lending, energy, infrastructure and more, making a small class of money managers extremely rich, while killing jobs and sucking wealth from workers, tenants and communities. Read on >
Racial Discrimination and Predatory Lending
Two votes taken in 2018 are especially emblematic of the unconscionable willingness of many lawmakers to enable racial discrimination in lending, and the extraction of wealth from people of color and women and especially women of color. Read on >
Privatization
Privatization allows financial players to treat public goods like schools, roads, and clean water as an opportunity to profit by extracting wealth from communities, particularly low-income and communities of color. Read on >
Pensions
Over the last few decades, U.S. public pension funds have moved away from traditional stocks and bonds and toward so-called “alternative investments”, including hedge funds and private equity firms. The funds themselves are not as transparent, regulated, or stable as public companies, and their fees are significantly higher. Read on >