Dodd moves to scale back Consumer Financial Protection Agency plan
In an attempt to lure the Republican votes needed to get a sweeping overhaul through the Senate, the Banking Committee chief is circulating a plan for a less powerful Bureau of Financial Protection.
-- Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2010
Dodd Proposes Financial Protection Committee Housed in Treasury Department
In new attempt to lure the Republican and Democrat votes needed to get semi-sweeping overhaul through Senate, the Banking Committee chief is circulating a plan to create a Financial Protection Committee inside the U.S. Treasury.
-- Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2010
Dodd Proposes Professor of Financial Protection at University of Connecticut
In renewed attempt to lure the Republican and Democrat votes needed to get modest financial fixes through Senate, the Banking Committee chief is circulating a plan to give the University of Connecticut $150,000 to hire a professor to teach the public about financial protection.
-- Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2010
Dodd Proposes Dial 1-900-4Protection Line
In a leisurely attempt to lure the Republican and Democrat votes needed to get itsy-bitsy, not too scary reform bill through Senate, the Banking Committee chief is circulating a plan to set up a 900 number to be answered on weekends by volunteers from credit card customer service departments. Costs of the program will be defrayed by charge of 99 cents per call.
-- Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2010
Dodd Proposes Facebook Financial Protection Page
In further attempt to lure the Republican and Democrat votes needed to get any kind of friggin’ bill through Senate, the soon to retire to the financial industry Banking Committee chief is circulating a plan to create a Facebook page where consumers can share financial protection ideas with each other.
-- Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2010
Dodd Proposes Wall Street Protect Consumers
Fuhghettaboutit.
-- Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2010
Read Reuters’ economic blogger Felix Salmon’s intriguing takeaway from the weekend’s depressing news that Repubs have rejected even Chris Dodd’s watered-down, weakened version of the financial consumer protection agency. Salmon’s prescription: the Dems should accept whatever the key Republican senators, Richard Shelby and Bob Corker, want. It won’t be that much worse than Dodd’s current “toothless” proposal is now.
Then, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren should team up with a non-governmental organization like the Center for Responsible Lending and perform the function of a real independent consumer financial protection agency, warning people about particularly bad loans or institutions that are rip-offs, and commending good ones.
Are the Republicans really thwarting the Democrats? Or do Democrats not get anything done by design? Salon’s Glenn Greenwald tells you how and why the Democrats have perfected ineffectiveness and timidity into a high art. Read it and weep.
Meanwhile, the old dinosaur print media isn’t dead yet. New York Times’ columnist Gretchen Morgenstern has a scathing take on the naiveté of Fed chair Ben Bernanke’s takes on Goldman and their Greek default swaps. As for Bernanke’s “quaint” insight that the SEC will probably be interested in looking into the matter, Morgenstern writes: “If the past is prologue we might see a case or two emerge from the inquiry five years from now. The fact is that credit default swaps and other complex derivatives that have proved to be instruments of mass destruction still remain entrenched in our financial system three years after our financial system was almost brought to its knees.”