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."
Shirley Smith continues: "I am here today to show you the human toll of Wall Street's greed. Our elected leaders... I have to ask you why billionaires should be allowed to do this and destroy the fiber of America?"
Dr. Appelbaum, Co-Director of Center for Economic and Policy Research, highlights where private equity firms are investing and their effects on the employees. “Win or lose, private equity firms always walk away with a profit.”
In response to questioning from @SenJackReed, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs:"as PE continues to evolve, there is a growing need for improved disclosures."
Shirley Smith in response to @SenWarren: "everything [T.H. Lee] did was to profit them and hurt the people, and they didn't care."
Shirley Smith again in response to @SenWarren: "this is cannibalism."
@SenWarren: "How would the SWSLA help address these market failures?"

Dr. Appelbaum: "it would stop the worst abuses and encourage PE to do what it says it does and help companies to grow and be successful"
@SenWarren asks registered nurse Peggy Malone about the consequences of PE in healthcare: "all of these things result in death."
@SenWarren: "So what are we going to do about this?... I've introduced the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, which is groundbreaking legislation to clean up this industry."

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More from @RealBankReform

21 Oct
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."
@SherrodBrown "It's a variation on the same theme no matter the industry.... PE profits depend on squeezing every last nickel from workers and renters, without any kind of real investment in their employees or their communities."
Read 13 tweets
16 Oct
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 Image
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
A senior Republican and bank lobbyists slimed her with McCarthy-style tactics.

@SenToomey, the top R on the Senate Banking Committee demanded her undergraduate thesis from a Moscow university

@PatrickMcHenry, top R on House Financial Services Committee, joined in too

3/16 Image
Read 17 tweets
13 Apr
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"
Richard Rothstein of @NAACP_LDF explains how the racial wealth gap is built on and exacerbated by yesteryears's racist policies based on exclusion in housing
Read 15 tweets
4 Feb
"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
"Student debt prevents Americans from building & creating wealth, contributing to the wealth gap. This is felt most acutely by Black & Brown Americans who have historically been denied by their country the privilege of financial freedom" --@RepAdams #CancelStudentDebt
Read 10 tweets
1 Feb
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
Last year, Belarus used technology provided by Sandvine to shut down the news websites, block social media platforms, and ban messaging apps while torturing protestors nationwide.

Sandvine asked for the product back too late — the damage had been done.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 5 tweets
13 Jan
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…
Jan. 6 was, as @BankersPrez Nichols put it “a dark day.” Yeah.

Rioters were assaulting police officers, hunting elected officials, and flying the flag of hate and treason 3/4

businessinsider.com/photo-trump-su…
Read 5 tweets

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