AFP is deeply concerned about the practice of lending money and extending credit to foreign companies that buy U.S. exports.
As long as federal intervention in housing persists, the best thing we can hope for is the kind of behavior we currently are seeing from Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Despite a rising outcry from progressive critics, DeMarco has made a small step to prevent further government intervention in housing by refusing to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide principal reduction on their loans. In doing so, DeMarco has defended American taxpayers from having to pay even more to cover for the fallout of the 2008 collapse.
Last week, Visa and MasterCard settled a lawsuit brought against them by a variety of merchants who were tired of the arrangement that they had sign onto to pay the cost of swipe fees. Merchants believed that customers would choose to pay with cash to receive a lower price (up to 3%) on products if they were aware that merchants were charging them more to pay with plastic.
Dear Senators,
On behalf of more than two million Americans for Prosperity activists in all 50 states, I write in strong opposition to the recently-introduced Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act, S.3085. The bill promises help for homeowners, but will instead deliver harmful consequences for the nation’s housing markets that leave homeowners worse off in the long run.
Six months ago, the Federal Reserve implemented price controls on debit card swipe fees under the Durbin Amendment, one of the many deeply misguided provisions of Dodd-Frank.
Last summer the U.S. Senate had an opportunity to turn off these price controls, but they failed to do so. With twelve Senate Republicans betraying the free market, the effort failed by six votes.
Proponents of the price controls insisted that the lower transaction fees would be passed on to customers in lower prices at the register, but six months of experience have shown that this experiment in regulatory intrusion has been all pain and no gain for consumers.
As predicted, banks who could no longer earn a market return on debit transactions shifted to charging fees for consumer debit cards, until vilification by politicians and the media forced them to drop the fees.
Y 2 Million Members
g 95,000 Donors
Prosperity and opportunity begin when government gets out of the way. That’s why Americans for Prosperity is working hard to win major policy victories on the local and state levels and make sure your voice is heard loud and clear by our elected officials.
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