Although the Consumer Financial Protection Agency made it through the House more or less intact, the banking lobby is taking another, better shot at killing it in the Senate, and is planning to use the magic words: "big government" and "bureaucracy." Elizabeth Warren wrote an op-ed for Tuesday's Wall Street Journal that lays out the confrontation. For most of the past two decades, many Americans trusted the banking industry-not necessarily to be moral exemplars, but they trusted that the banks were basically doing what was right for customers and for the economy. Then in 2007-2008 that mood abruptly reversed, as it became apparent that unscrupulous mortgage lenders, the Wall Street banks that backed them, and the credit rating agencies had been ripping off mortgage borrowers on the one hand and investors on the other.
The big banks face a choice. They can agree to sensible reforms that protect consumers and rein in the excesses of the past decades. Or they can simply decide to screw customers, but do it openly this time, since they have so much market share it almost doesn't matter what customers think. How else do you explain, say, Citigroup's concocting a new credit card "feature" explicitly to get around a new requirement of the Credit CARD Act? Or Jamie Dimon saying that financial crises are something to be expected every five to seven years, so we should just get over it?
A year ago, it might have been possible to twist the banks' arms hard enough to get them to agree to new ways of doing business (such as a CFPA), because they needed government support so badly. Now it's too late. So the solution has to come from the other kind of arm-twisting-pressure from the president, the administration (that means you, Tim Geithner), and ordinary voters. If people feel screwed by the financial sector-and many of them should after the past decade-then they should want the CFPA.
But last month, Republican political consultant Frank Luntz wrote a memo laying out how Republicans could kill financial regulatory reform. "Ordinarily, calling for a new government program 'to protect consumers' would be extraordinary popular," he wrote. "But these are not ordinary times. The American people are not just saying 'no.' They are saying 'hell no' to more government agencies, more bureaucrats, and more legislation crafted by special interests." The goal is simple: to make Americans think that the CFPA is their enemy, because it's part of the government, and that the banks are nice cuddly ewoks by comparison.
This is absurd.
We like to make fun of government in this country, but really, what are you and a few of your buddies going to do to fight JPMorgan Chase on your own? For all of our beloved rugged individualism (and our individual right to handguns), it doesn't do much good when you're up against your credit card issuer. There is no Chicago-school free market solution to an oligopoly that, on top of all its other advantages, has an implicit government guarantee that gives it a major funding cost advantage over its competitors. One of the purposes of government is to protect ordinary people from forces (hurricanes, terrorists, monopolies) against which free market forces do not provide adequate protection. This is why we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And this is what Frank Luntz wants to trick people into forgetting.
Cross-posted at The Baseline Scenario
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The BANKING INDUSTRY is a major player in the American domestic and foreign policy arena. It takes no prisoners. Those that want to challenge it will face a formidable enemy if they propose FORMiDABLE regulation or laws with TEETH. Also, BANKING IS AMERICA'S KEY INDUSTRY, just like in yesteryear our KEY industries were MANUFACTUR
So, BANKING has become America's meat & potatoes. As a Key player in America, it is tightly fused with the American government
so stop spending -- buy only food new-- everything else 2nd hand--driv
I left almost all my money in the credit union in UT where I lived for 18 years - have just enough in my accounts in the bank in AZ to pay bills and a very small cushion for emergencie
Bank credit cards are a rip off - they change the rules every time the wind blows. I use Discover and pay it off every month - no fees and I even get cash back.
We just need to get control of ourselves and we need to equalize the cost of labor through a value added tax or tariffs.
The lack of demand in the USA is causing unemployme
Obama and his team will not be putting 20 million workers back to work without some very impactful new policies.
If we don't get to building things and manufactur
But---in the meantime lock up all the "Banksters
http://www
Other than that, most banks will have little problem leveling the playing field. This will allow some banks to compete against the bad banks. Bring it on!
What are our assets? Oh yeah, our "free" labor. What a powerful bargaining chip.
BTW, union workers come under contract law. Non-union workers fall under a hold-over from English common law, called... get ready for this... a Master-Ser
Multiply that just by all the people who've lost their jobs because the banks decided to withhold cash-flow loans from otherwise stable companies, and you've got hundreds of millions in profit just from account holders who now strain to meet payments.
Of course America's multi-mill
Voter Miricles could produce an American Renaissanc
Tough hard nosed audits and investigat
Everyone could have civilian government health care (NHC) like the VA’s for 300million people and it would cost $1trillion less than the $2.6 trillion spent last year.
Free government care for everyone choosing NHC care paid for by a national sales instead of insurance.
Employers could optout of paying for employee care.
States could offload healthcare costs to NHC.
Everyone who receives government funded health care from any source anywhere in the US whether it be Medicare, Medicaid, all states, cities, school systems everything
The second system would be private only; consumers would pay to recieve private care, which would be deliverd in private hospitals, no public funding would be paid to private insurers or providers.
The private system should not be subjected to government mandates.