Payday Pundit » 2010

What?

August 27, 2010 | CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB, federal legislation | Comments (1)

Is Barney Frank after Elizabeth Warren’s job? Frank is supporting Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection. But Alain Sherter reports that “Citing a source on the House Financial Services Committee “close to” Frank, who chairs the panel, bank analyst Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics says the Massachusetts Democrat is throwing his cudgel into the ring.” Frank denies this, though.

I doubt this. I don’t think the Chairman of the House Financiall Services Committee would settle for anything less than a cabinet secretary level job if he were to go into the administration.

Let’s read more tea leafs

August 26, 2010 | CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB, federal legislation | Comments (0)

From the Wall Street Journal:

White House advisor Valerie Jarrett is playing a central role in the Obama administration’s deliberations over whom to pick to run the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, two people familiar with the matter said.

Jarrett’s involvement could bode well for Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, considered a top candidate for the potential job. Jarrett and Warren have met multiple times in the last year and are considered to be close.

They lunched together on July 21, the day President Barack Obama signed the financial-overhaul bill into law. They met again at the White House a few weeks later, along with David Axelrod, another White House advisor.

But who’s she having lunch with today?

HuffPo can’t give it a rest

August 26, 2010 | CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB, federal legislation | Comments (0)

The Huffington Post’s campaign for Elizabeth Warren to head the BCFP continues:

In questioning Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy to lead a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd has repeatedly questioned whether Warren possesses the appropriate management experience to lead a large federal bureaucracy.

But it’s the first time Chairman Dodd has publicly raised such an issue when it came to evaluating presidential nominees to agency positions under the banking committee’s purview.

The rest of the piece is just railing about Dodd.

Comment of the Day

August 26, 2010 | Uncategorized | Comments (1)

So basically take the business away from main street payday lenders and give it to wall street banks and credit unions!!!

Exactly

August 26, 2010 | international | Comments (1)

As the payday lending debate heats up in Britain, the “moneyblog” at a Left-wing newspaper, The Guardian, says this:

This week’s YouGov omnibus survey for Compass appeared to find overwhelming public support for a cap on interest rates as a solution: 68% of respondents believe there should be a lending rate cap to cover all forms of consumer credit, including the unsecured credit sector.

I can see how this seems like a sensible way of helping prevent people who are seeking short-term credit for small loans from being exploited, particularly those seeking loans from home credit and payday lenders. After all, some payday lenders from America charge over 2500% APR. However, these sky-high APRs exaggerate the true cost of this type of credit.

Interest rates reflect more than the cost of money. Last year’s report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation into the feasibility of a not-for-profit home credit business found that, even on a not-for-profit basis, to make the service financially sustainable the percentage cost of home credit would be over 100%.

NPR discuess Warren fight

August 26, 2010 | CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB, federal legislation | Comments (0)

From the story:

MAIN STREET BRIGADE (Rappers): (Rapping) Elizabeth. Got, got, got a new sheriff. Warren. Got, got, got a new sheriff. Elizabeth. Got, got, got a new sheriff, Warren. Elizabeth Warren.

Ms. JULIA ROSEN (Online Political Director, Progressive Change Campaign Committee): I dont know about you, but I can’t remember a time when a position that needs to be confirmed by the Senate had a rap video in support of an individual.

HORSLEY: Julia Rosen’s group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, has collected more than 200,000 petition signatures for Warren, who also serves as a watchdog for the government’s bank bailout program.

The plainspoken Harvard law professor has become a folk hero for bank customers. And Rosen says it’ll be disappointing if Mr. Obama picks anyone else.

Ms. ROSEN: Elizabeth Warren has a proven record of standing up to Wall Street on behalf of the consumers. And the public is telling President Obama that she’s absolutely the best person for the job.

HORSLEY: Warren’s pioneering research into the causes of bankruptcy, and the financial traps that ordinary Americans fall into, made her a crusader for consumer protection. But it didnt make her any friends in the banking industry.

Rules

August 26, 2010 | Colorado | Comments (0)

There’s a big fight in Colorado over the proposed payday lending rules.

Comment of the Day

August 25, 2010 | Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Fine! Less Jobs in Iowa! Way to go. Not only that but I am sure Wells Fargo will enjoy the increased Overdraft Fee and Returned Item Fee income from having less available small dollar credit in the marketplace. The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions.

Wow

August 25, 2010 | alternatives, industry | Comments (0)

Credit card debt dropping like a stone. From the story:

The average combined debt for bank-issued credit cards – like those with a MasterCard or Visa logo – fell to $4,951 in the three months ended June 30, down more than 13 percent from $5,719 in the same period a year ago, according to TransUnion.

The credit reporting agency said it was the first three-month period during which card debt fell below $5,000 since the first quarter of 2002.

The amount consumers owed on their credit cards in this year’s second quarter dropped to the lowest level in more than eight years as cardholders continued to pay off balances in the uncertain economy.