Thread by @RealBankReform

Tune in now to the @FSCDems' hearing, "America for Sale? An Examination of the Practices of Private Funds."

WATCH📺:

We'll be live-tweeting the hearing in the thread below 👇

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum of @ceprdc:

“Toys R Us failed, its stores were shuttered, and 33,000 workers lost their jobs. It is this reckless loading of debt that the #StopWallStLooting Act would end.”

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc Wayne Moore: “Public pension funds will pay up to $45 billion in fees and expenses to the industry this year, a massive transfer of wealth from workers to Wall Street”

"While just 10% of our portfolio, #PrivateEquity makes up half of our investment costs"

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc GiovannaDe La Rosa @forrespect:

“My coworkers & I were left with nothing, while Toys R Us paid $470MM in fees to private equity owners.

That'd be enough to pay over $14,000 in severance to each employee who lost their job”

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect GiovannaDe La Rosa @forrespect:

The #StopWallStreetLooting Act will protect jobs "by regulating #PrivateEquity so they can't make money by putting people like me out of work.”

“We are waiting to see what side you are on: working people or Wall St billionaires."

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect Chair @RepMaxineWaters asks if #PrivateEquity should be able to take over healthcare or emergency services, given the evidence we have at the poor job they’ve done.

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters When the #PrivateEquity trade association witness says they can be responsible investors in healthcare, @RepMaxineWaters asks, “what about the evidence we have, should we just forget about that? Our research shows that it’s not isolated.”

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters Wayne Moore debunks the "Amazon killed their jobs" myth, and reveals the game plan of buyout firms: "they're not in it for the long-term"

They'll take the value can get from the firm and then "leave them high and dry."

Couldn't say it better ourselves.

#StopWallStreetLooting

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter: I personally have been a victim of surprise billing, and know how devastating it can be

Q: Do you think the involvement of #PrivateEquity in physician contracts has increased surprise billing?

@EileenAppelbaum of @ceprdc: Yes, absolutely.

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @RepKatiePorter: What's the goal of private equity firms KKR & @Blackstone lobbying against solutions for surprise billing?

@EileenAppelbaum: To protect their profits

Q: Does the involvement of private equity in healthcare improve patient outcomes?

A: No evidence that it does

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne, concerned with how PE affects Manufactured Housing and her constituents, gets a shocking response from @EileenAppelbaum of @CEPRDC

“They’re looking for a situation where people have no choice… and then they jack up the rent.”

#StopWallStreetLooting”

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez asks if limited partners (like pension funds) should have more access to the fees and expenses, and even disciplinary actions by the SEC?

@EileenAppelbaum of @ceprdc: Yes, absolutely.

"at the moment, the #PrivateEquity firms have the power"

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC: "I wasn’t sent here to safeguard & protect profit. I was sent here to safeguard & protect people.

We are talking about reining in #PrivateEquity, which in the last 10 years is behind 590,000 lost jobs.

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC @RepAOC lays out how #PrivateEquity is responsible for wiping out tens of thousands of jobs:

Toys R Us: 30,000 jobs wiped out ✖️
ShopKo: 14,000 jobs ✖️

Not to mention the undemocratic impacts on media companies: Splinter, Deadspin, local newspapers ✖️

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC @RepAOC @AOC @RepAOC: Did you access to healthcare get damaged after #PrivateEquity took over Toys R Us?

@Giovann58838648 @forrepsect: Yes it was

Was your mental health sacrificed as a result of how your quality of life was changed?

Very much so.

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC @RepAOC @Giovann58838648 @AOC: We need to think about our economy not just in terms of the returns for stock holders, but in terms of how the lives of workers are impacted.

Notes May letter w/ @SenWarren about the @USTreasury’s involvement in decisions re @Sears bankruptcy: bit.ly/3443hnL

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC @RepAOC @Giovann58838648 @SenWarren @USTreasury @Sears @EileenAppelbaum of @ceprdc on how #PrivateEquity companies create "a lot of illusion" about their own returns to investors.

@FSCDems @EileenAppelbaum @ceprdc @forrespect @RepMaxineWaters @RepKatiePorter @blackstone @RepCindyAxne @NydiaVelazquez @AOC @RepAOC @Giovann58838648 @SenWarren @USTreasury @Sears @EileenAppelbaum of @ceprdc, in response to a Q from @AOC:

"Since the financial crisis, about half of the #PrivateEquity funds have under-performed the stock market. Another half of them barely beat the stock market."