You can find out at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-968

Elizabeth Warren, intellectual mother of the CFPA,  continues her media tour.   On C-Span she beats the drumbeat of “transparency” as if that’s all that she wants.

A United Way chapter is getting into the act.

From a letter in the Superior (WI) Telegram:

Instead of providing low-income adults with quick cash to get out of a pinch, more than 80 percent of borrowers are not able to repay that loan within two weeks. They find themselves with no choice but to apply for a second loan with additional fees to pay off the first loan.

Not true.  Consumers have the same choice they had when they took the first loan. They can bounce a check, use overdraft protection, they can borrow from family, etc.

Because if you buy this story in the Huffington Post,  you’re a sucker:

After meeting with bank executives, President Barack Obama noted “a big gap” between the CEOs and their lobbyists on his campaign to rewrite the rules governing the financial industry. The CEOs “support reform,” Obama said, but their lobbyists have been sending a different message.

Appearing separately after the meeting, the bankers seemed to agree. “We’re going to do a better job … to work with the lobbyists” to address that disconnect, US Bancorp CEO Richard Davis said.

There’s no disconnect.   Lobbyists don’t work independently of the people who hire them.

PDLindustryblog thinks so.

This story out of Scotland seems crazy.  Why doesn’t the journalist show us the math?

I’m really sick of reading stuff like this:

“There are more payday and title loan lending (businesses) in the state of Missouri than there are McDonald’s, Burger King, and Starbucks combined,” said Jana Castanon, a community outreach director for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

That’s a fact without a point.  There must be more demand for payday lenders and title lenders than for fast food and coffee.

This just popped up:

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear Tuesday called on members of the Kentucky General Assembly to consider legislation that would cap the amount of interest payday lenders can charge consumers to 36 percent.

The cap is based on the federal government’s annual percentage rate limit placed on payday loans to military members and their families.

Since we’re taking a lesson from the military rate cap, let’s note that payday lenders aren’t lending to military personnel because they can’t make money at 36%.

From the Moderate Voice:

One of my brothers is a regional vice president at Wells Fargo Bank in Portland, Oregon. We talked by telephone yesterday and after exchanging views on family and college football I asked him what he thought about pending new regulations on the financial institutions now being offered by President Obama and Congress.

“The (proposed) consumer protection agency is a disaster waiting to happen,” he vowed. Now, my brother is no apologist for the banking institutions. He laments that greed and lack of regulation were instrumental in last September’s financial meltdown. I was not equipped to challenge his view on the House’s bank regulatory bill. So I spent half this morning trying to educate myself.

The legislation would govern the simplest payday loan and the most complicated high-finance trades. In its breadth, the measure seeks to impose restrictions on every house of finance, from two-teller neighborhood thrifts to huge interconnected conglomerates.

This piece is a great read.