Sunday, December 13, 2009

What's Not to Like about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The U.S. Chamber of Commerse, Big Money, Will Tell Us.

It would be hard to imagine anyone voting against a way to stop another great recession from happening again, but that's just what the Republican Party did today. The Boston Globe:
Republicans charged that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency was a bureaucratic nightmare that would backfire and kill jobs. Representative Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican, charged “The American people want more jobs,’’ he said. “They want their money back and their nation back.’’
So what horror will Democrats create that will kill jobs and backfire?
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would seek to avoid a repeat of the mortgage crisis by writing new lending and credit rules. It would impose new regulations on hedge fund managers and the traders of complex securities called derivatives. And it would require federal agencies to monitor systemic risks in the financial markets and take actions to avoid another crisis, giving government the authority to seize control of teetering financial institutions that are considered “too big to fail.’’

Pretty scary stuff isn't it. Many would think it's the least we could do after tanking the global economy. But the party of big business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have other, more surreal plans for the public, like an ad campaign against the Consumer Financial Protection Agency as debate begins in the Senate;
“The uncertainty surrounding these regulatory standards and increased liabilities will create significant disincentives for institutions that lend to consumers, restricting access to credit and increasing the price of credit for consumers.”

Actually, it will have the opposite effect. Businesses need to know the rules to effectively start investing and get back to business as usual. The uncertainty is the real enemy, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Remember, they helped bring us the Great Recession.

Below is the Chambers latest deceptive ad meant to create public panic over the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, as bizarre as that may sound, followed by a news piece about a similar agency the protects us from dangerous products. Is it possible the new agency will be as helpful as the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sure.



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