Darrin Andersen, President and COO of QC Holdings and a CFSA board member, delivered a strong commentary on the radio business show “Marketplace.”  Click here to read the whole transcript or to hear it.   From Darrin’s commentary:

Main Street’s search for short-term credit, like payday loans, played no part in the economic meltdown. But some are trying to use financial reform to throw the payday lending industry under the bus.

Federal regulation of our industry could choke off billions of dollars a year in credit to hard-working Americans. And it would do little to rein in the outrageous behavior of the too-big-to-fail financial institutions.

From the Tennessean: 

U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, appearing before a crowd of students, professors and local bankers at Vanderbilt University this morning, had no apologies when it comes to the fact that it’s been more than two years since the start of the financial crisis and no reform has passed.

 He said Congress should to take the time to get the bill right and not pass bills “with this populist flair.”

 “We are all at fault for not having appropriate regulation when times are good,’’ he said. “The momentum is there for regulation.”

At least with some people.  This Left-wing blog covers financial reform this way: 

One regulatory reform expert, Doug Elliott of the Brookings Institution, points to two major potential flashpoints: consumer financial protection, and measures designed to give the federal government power to unwind failed financial institutions.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Agency is the biggest political issue,” Elliott told me yesterday. “The [House] view is alligned with the administration’s proposal for a strong independent agency. The [Senate] bill is not that far off it. It would be inside the Fed but it would be independent in every other respect.”

There’s just one wrinkle. While the House already passed its bill, the Senate has yet to act–and Republicans have laid down a strong line against creating a new independent agency.

“There will be no Republican support for the Senate bill without further watering down of the CFPA,” Elliott said.

One of the reasons we post so many “inside baseball” stories on the CFPA is that the media only writes about this stuff, not the substance.  How many stories are there about access to credit?  How about stories on how much it will costs businesses to comply with new regulations?  That would require actual thinking, which the media is loath to do.

Payday loan customers are banked!   From this frustrating story: 

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. gathered about two dozen bankers and finance professionals in his seventh-floor conference room at City Hall Wednesday to launch an ambitious financial literacy campaign.

Dubbed “Bank on Memphis,” its goal is to bring into the financial mainstream tens of thousands of Memphians whose paycheck-to-paycheck existence makes them more familiar with high-interest payday loans than no-fee checking accounts.

The Huffington Post loves the CFPA and loves Elizabeth Warren.

Should people vote for someone who works to limit credit and destroy jobs?

From today’s Politico: 

The president’s push to turn health care reform into a catalyst for the rest of his agenda is getting mixed early reactions on Capitol Hill, where Democratic leaders’ desire to take advantage of healthy majorities before the November elections must contend with lawmakers’ survival instincts.

—————————

I don’t see it creating momentum,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has negotiated across party lines on several significant issues in his first term.

The difference Corker detects on regulating Wall Street is not that the bill’s moving – that, he says, was inevitable – but that Obama is working to ensure it appeals to liberals.

Although he has a different timetable than Gibbs. (see below).  He says financial reform should pass before summer recess in this New York Times story.

Laid out by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.   From the story:

The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it expects financial regulatory reform to pass through the Senate — maybe even through Congress — by late May, establishing the type of timeline that frequently vexed the president during the health care debate.

“I don’t think that is an unrealistic timetable at all,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked about “a push to get the bill to the president’s desk by the end of May.”

So what do the American people want Congress to focus on?  From the latest Pew Research:

y