Word: reformations
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Last year was supposed to be the most transformative year in American public life since the sixties. Far reaching legislation seemed assured. Economic recovery, healthcare reform, a cap on carbon emissions, and financial regulation. What a difference a year makes. A failure to get any of these things done is blamed in part on dithering, undisciplined Democrats and their leader, Barack Obama. They’ve got 59 votes, and yet it’s as if the Republicans are in firm control of the legislative branch. Liberal pundits panicked and turned on their own. Too much hope, not enough...
...when it comes to financial products like mortgages and credit cards, you can't be sure of any of those things. That's the basic case for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), the centerpiece of President Obama's push to reform financial regulation. (See the financial crisis after one year...
...Financial reform is complex, and it's hard for nonexperts to follow which proposals for a derivatives clearinghouse or systemic risk council have teeth and which are sops to the industry. One political attraction of the CFPA is its simplicity: you're for it or against it. After sketchy subprime mortgages helped crater financial markets, even laissez-faire ideologues like Alan Greenspan called for stronger regulations to curb abuses and stabilize the system. And given the well-documented outrages pervading the industry these days - exorbitant overdraft fees, late fees, nuisance fees and balloon payments buried in opaque legalese, slimy yield...
...CFPA as a heavy-handed crimp on free markets reek of apologetics for an industry that's disturbingly reliant on gotcha games. That said, there are at least three plausible arguments - really, a three-part argument - against Obama's decision to declare the CFPA a non-negotiable element of reform...
...message that the economy is supposed to work for ordinary families. We should have a CFPA - and also size restrictions, stricter leverage rules and capital requirements, better regulation of complex derivatives, an orderly mechanism to wind down failing firms without bailouts and all the other elements of financial reform...