Left-wing muckraker Alexander Cockburn (a description he would be  proud to embrace) describes Elizabeth Warren in interesting terms:

The president has no fixed principles of political economy, and who is at his elbow in the White House? Not the Labour Secretary, Hilda Solis. Not that splendid radical Elizabeth Warren, whose Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the Republicans are already scheduling for destruction. Next to Obama is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the bankers’ lapdog, whom the president holds in high esteem.

Regarding yesterday’s post about the Washington Independent news site shutting down:

If it were pro-free-market, I suppose it would have found a loon to sponsor it as a propaganda outlet so it can operate at a loss.

The Payday Pundit is dancing on the grave of the Washington Independent, an online news site that folded today because it couldn’t make money.  The Independent was anti-free markets, a critic of all industries that offered private sector solutions to the problems of working Americans and in general an ideologically driven news institution.  The Independent lived off of donations, probably from people who made money in ways the Independent journalists wouldn’t approve of.   Goodbye and good riddance.

Well hello Montana, Ohio & Arizona…I’m your new lender:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013427831_hardmoney14.html?prmid=obinsource

Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) has conceded in her race.   Does this mean she will be considered for the job of head of the CFPB?  Stay tuned.

The White House and Chamber of Commerce want to kiss and make up.  From the Huffington Post:

The two parties have collaborated on some major items, notably the bank bailout and the stimulus package. And while the head-butting has been more noticeable and severe — from Valerie Jarrett calling the business lobby’s “free enterprise” campaign “regrettable” to the Chamber spending millions of dollars attacking Democrats in the 2010 cycle — it’s always been coupled with formal efforts at rapprochement.

Here’s the guy who will be regulating banks over at the CFPB:

Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks Steven Antonakes is accepting a new job at the U.S. Treasury.

Treasury officials said Tuesday that Antonakes will join the agency’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau team charged with building a consumer supervision program for the nation’s largest depository institutions.

In his new job, Antonakes will oversee the nation’s largest banks and credit unions to make sure they are complying with federal consumer protection laws.

Antonakes has served as Massachusetts commissioner of banks since 2003.

Crazy “alternative” newspaper in South Carolina continues jihad against payday lenders:

In January, Columbia City Council toughened up zoning restrictions on new payday lenders and title loan companies, banning them from opening within half a mile of each other and limiting the size of buildings they can occupy.

Ten months later, the law has had little net effect on the number of such businesses in the city. There were 42 lenders in town before the ordinance. After three closings and one opening, and with two applications pending, it seems likely that at year-end there will still be 42 lenders.

This blog says Elizabeth Warren should be considereed.

This borrower made a chart of his mortgage situation: