Posted on 18 May 2011.
Elizabeth Warren was named to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and she’s not even a football player or an oilmen. From the story:
Warren is among the latest inductees into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. The Oklahoma Heritage Association announced last week that the Harvard law professor would be one of seven people in the 2011 class, which also includes retired Gen. Tommy Franks.
Warren, who grew up in Norman, Okla., is currently in charge of standing up the CFPB, which was created as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. She also has emerged as the primary defender of the fledging bureau, which is set to begin work in July.
Posted in CFPB Nomination, Deseret News, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB
Posted on 25 April 2011.
Still don’t know but the Detroit News is teasing us with this story:
Warren, the White House and Treasury Department adviser assigned to set up the consumer bureau, is “absolutely” still on the list as a possible nominee for the director’s job, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.
“She is doing a terrific job making the case for stronger consumer protection and attracting talented people to stand up that agency,” Geithner said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Peter Cook.
Posted in CFPB, CFPB Nomination, Deseret News, Elizabeth Warren, federal legislation, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB
Posted on 13 April 2011.
From the story:
About 60 complaints a month have been coming in to the Consumer Response Center, created by last year’s passage of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law, despite a note on the bureau’s website explaining the lack of a posted phone number or email address: “We can’t help yet because the Consumer Response Center is still being established.”
On July 21, the agency expects to be able to handle complaints of the credit-card variety. But its authority over other types of businesses, like pay-day loan-makers and purveyors of other nonbank products, won’t begin until it has a Senate-confirmed director in place. The White House has yet to name a nominee.
Posted in CFPB, CFPB Nomination, Deseret News, federal legislation, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB
Posted on 06 April 2011.
It’s companies like this:
Given the havoc that easy credit wreaked on our economy, you might think that lenders would be a little more judicious these days in how they promote their loans.
Not so with Payday.Pro.
The payday lender recently posted an advertisement suggesting that men take out a payday loan for a bachelor party. After all, the ad says, “You don’t want to be the only guy at the bachelor party without any dollar bills to toss around.”
Posted in CFPB, Deseret News, federal legislation
Posted on 14 March 2011.
There are certainly more puff pieces than attacks on Elizabeth Warren, but Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation sees it the other way around, I guess:
What is most striking and infuriating about these cynical and calculated attacks against the CFPB and Warren is this: until now, too many federal agencies were charged with consumer financial protection, and that obligation usually received short shrift, lost amidst competing interests and responsibilities. We’ve seen the disastrous results—not only for consumers, but businesses competing honestly against competitors who make their products seem more enticing by burying the true costs in intentionally confusing contracts and legalese.
Posted in CFPB, CFPB Nomination, Deseret News, Elizabeth Warren, industry, regulation
Posted on 22 February 2011.
Daily Caller contributor Natasha Mayer thinks the Indian Partnership model adopted by some Internet lenders should offend even “free market” types. From the story:
Let me try to wrap my mind around this. Indian tribes, looking to clone their lucrative but controversial casino model, lend their sovereign immunity out to the highest bidder — no questions asked. The Internet lenders rent a P.O. Box based on an Indian reservation and blow off all the state attorneys general who file lawsuit after lawsuit against them. They even get to operate in the 12 states that have banned their competition — brick and mortar short-term lenders.
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So, as someone who’s always believed in the free market and feels that unregulated commerce is the key to liberty, how should I feel about this issue? Should the payday lenders who have found a way around state and federal laws by operating on Indian reservations be rewarded for their entrepreneurial ingenuity? Ultimately, I have to say no. Why? Because the free market only works when similar businesses are regulated by uniform laws, and the winners and losers are determined by the market’s decisions alone. The CFPB, by trying to regulate away free market choice, has already awarded the jackpot to the (currently legitimate) Indian tribes and online lenders and made consumers the rubes. This isn’t the free market or liberty — it’s what happens when regulators get outsmarted.
Posted in CFPB, Deseret News, Payday lending, positive media coverage