Analysis

Concerned About BlackRock Pricing Out Home Buyers? Wait Until You Hear How Connected They Are To The Government

(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Varun Hukeri General Assignment & Analysis Reporter
Font Size:

BlackRock gained attention earlier this year after it was reported the asset manager was pricing middle class buyers out of the housing market, but the Wall Street firm has also become an increasingly influential player in the U.S. government.

Institutional investors, primarily banks and asset managers, have been buying up single-family houses to rent in recent years, a business model that could become a dominant force in the housing market and change the nature of home ownership, The Wall Street Journal reported in early June.

Hunter Housing Economics concluded homes that are built to rent account for around 6% of new homes built in the U.S. every year, a number that is expected to double by 2024. Wall Street has also bet billions on the built-to-rent market by investing in home building companies and are projected to put down an additional $40 billion over the next year, according to the WSJ.

John Burns Real Estate Consulting counted BlackRock among more than 200 companies and investment firms that bought and arranged for the management of rentals on behalf of home builders, according to a separate WSJ report in early April.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is pictured on August 31, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City. - Wall Street stocks paused near record levels early Monday ahead of key economic data later in the week, with a newly-tweaked Dow index edging lower. The final session of a heady August opened on a lackluster note as markets await employment data and updates on the manufacturing and services sectors in the coming days. About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 percent to 28,539.83. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

The New York Stock Exchange is pictured on August 31, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

The growth in built-to-rent homes comes as homeownership is expected to decline over the next two decades, the think tank Urban Institute reported in January. This decline is especially concentrated among millennials, who are currently in their prime home-buying years. (RELATED: Wall Street Wants To Take Over Your Home)

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has become a prime example of the so-called revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, according to Business Insider. At least three former high-ranking employees of the New York-based firm hold prominent roles in President Joe Biden’s administration.

Biden nominated Brian Deese to serve as director of the National Economic Council (NEC). He previously served as deputy director of both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the NEC under former President Barack Obama. After his stint in the Obama administration, Deese joined BlackRock as global head of sustainable investing, according to the WSJ.

Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project, a group that monitors corporate influence in government, told Reuters in November 2020 that BlackRock’s stake in policy decisions could compel Deese to “be absent from big chunks of his job.”

Biden nominated Adewale Adeyemo to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He also worked in the Obama administration first as a senior international economics advisor in the Treasury Department and then as the former president’s deputy national security advisor for international economics. He later joined BlackRock as a senior advisor, according to WSJ.

US President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, July 19, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic at the White House on July 19, 2021 (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief economic advisor Michael Pyle was formerly the global chief investment strategist at BlackRock, according to Bloomberg. Like his colleagues, Pyle also worked in the Obama administration and served in multiple roles in the NEC, OMB and Treasury Department. (RELATED: Wall Street Completes Its Takeover Of Washington)

BlackRock has also picked up a number of former U.S. government officials, including those who served in the Obama and Trump administrations as well as at the Federal Reserve.

Thomas Donilon, a former national security advisor to Obama, is now chairman of the asset manager’s research branch. Dalia Blass, a former Securities and Exchange Commission who ran the agency’s asset management division under former President Donald Trump, joined BlackRock in May as head of external affairs.

Coryann Stefansson, a former bank regulator at the Federal Reserve, joined BlackRock as managing director of the firm’s Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) unit in 2016. She left the role in 2019 and now works as a managing director at the financial services firm Citi, according to her LinkedIn.

BlackRock also played a prominent role aiding the Federal Reserve during both the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 22: The Federal Reserve building is seen January 22, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point after two days of tumult in international markets due to fear of a recession in the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Federal Reserve building is seen January 22, 2008 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In March 2020, the Federal Reserve tapped the firm’s FMA unit to oversee an emergency asset-purchasing program, according to Business Insider. The asset manager seems to have been selected beforehand as there was no process for other companies to bid for the role, the WSJ reported.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said during a press conference in 2020 that the central bank would take broad action to mitigate economic damage from the pandemic. The Brookings Institution noted in a March report that the Federal Reserve offered up to $2.3 trillion in lending to support households, companies and governments.

It wasn’t the first time BlackRock helped the central bank during a financial crisis. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York asked BlackRock’s FMA unit to handle assets of firms like Bear Stearns and AIG during the 2008 recession, The New York Times reported.

Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told the outlet at the time that BlackRock’s access to financial information and its financial relations around the world created “the potential for a conflict of interest” and would be “very difficult” for regulators to police.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel