From the NYT:
"Banks and mortgage lenders are placing top priority on killing President Obama's proposal to create a new consumer protection agency that would regulate home loans, credit card fees, payday loans and other forms of consumer finance.
The Obama administration fired an opening shot on Tuesday, sending Congress a detailed, 150-page proposal for an agency that would set new standards for ordinary mortgages, restrict or prohibit risky loans, investigate financial institutions and enforce new laws aimed at protecting credit card customers.
"This agency will have only one mission -- to protect consumers," said Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, in a written statement on Tuesday.
But industry executives vowed on Tuesday to fight Mr. Obama's plan with everything they have, even though banks are still heavily dependent on many taxpayer-supported loans and loan guarantees to get through the crisis. (...)
Bank executives said they knew they faced a difficult political fight, given the soaring number of homeowners facing foreclosure.
"We know the optics are bad," said Scott Talbott, vice president for government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade association in Washington. "If you are against a consumer regulatory agency, then everybody will say you're against consumer regulation.""
I suppose that when your industry has come up with such gems as the liar loan, helped bring the entire financial system to the brink of ruin, and helped bankrupt not just the people who took out those loans but people who had nothing to do with them -- people were laid off because of the crisis you helped create -- and when, after all that, you decide to oppose regulation of consumer financial products, you might say that "the optics are bad".
Here's some more bad optics:
"Gabby Ornelas, a former teller at the giant Bank of America Corp., remembers the training sessions. And she remembers her marching orders: "Sell, sell, sell."
Ornelas was instructed to use her Spanish language skills and Latina heritage to sign up customers for as many kinds of banking services as possible, she said -- services that led to lucrative fees for the bank and financial entanglement for many customers.
"We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn't understand how to use them," said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.
In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account. (...)
The former workers said they were going public to lay out what they saw as a little-known side of BofA's business model: encouraging working-class customers to sign up for high-interest-rate credit and cash advance services and structuring an array of check and debit card services to maximize overdraft fees and other charges."
I can see why people who engage in those kinds of practices -- or these, or these -- might be leery of a consumer protection agency. What I can't see is why the rest of us should listen to them. They had their shot at policing themselves. If they wanted to avoid regulation, they should have taken it. They didn't. To my mind, they have long since forfeited the right to complain.
Sargent: GOP Senator Cornyn: Coleman Loss Could Improve Our Chances In 2010
Now that Norm Coleman has conceded, Senator John Cornyn, head of the GOP’s efforts to win Senate seats, is out with a new statement locating the silver lining in the defeat:
“The implications of this Senate race are particularly significant because the Democrats will now have 60 votes in the Senate. With their supermajority, the era of excuses and finger-pointing is now over. With just 59 votes, Senate Democrats in recent months have passed trillion-dollar spending bills, driven up America’s debt, made every American taxpayer a shareholder in the auto industry and now want Washington to takeover America’s health care system. It’s troubling to think about what they might now accomplish with 60 votes.
“That’s why the American people will now have a particularly clear choice in next year’s election –- to continue down this path of fiscal mismanagement, more big government, and one-party control in Washington or to restore a system of checks and balances that will hold government accountable to its citizens.”
The argument appears to be that Coleman’s loss could have the surprising effect of improving GOP chances in 2010, because Dems will no longer need Republicans to pass major initiatives and will thus wholly own them if and when they come to be seen as failures.
Last elephant standing June 30: Gov. Mark Sanford, R-SC, continues to stack confessions and revelations on the flaming pyre that was his credibility as a new report describes Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sending e-mails from God. Is there anything here for Republicans to salvage for 2012? Guest host Alison Stewart is joined by Chris Hayes, Washington editor of "The Nation."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Sargent: Happy Hour Roundup
* Now that Al Franken has put Dems within reach of 60 votes in the Senate, Markos Moulitsas says that Harry Reid has “no more excuses.”
* Senate Dems could seat Franken as early as next week.
* HuffPo reports that the House GOPers who voted for the climate change bill have targets on their backs — and fellow Republicans are taking aim.
* Robert Gibbs is declining to say whether Obama is prepared to use a parliamentary maneuver to get health care through the Senate over a 50-vote threshold. One is tempted to imagine that Franken’s victory will make this question less significant, but that would be overly optimistic.
* Franken makes the obligatory claim that he shouldn’t be seen as an automatic 60th vote for Dems.
* Josh Green warns that the 60 votes are still a mirage.
* Dave Weigel marvels at Norm Coleman’s ability to look as if he’s leaving the race gracefully after a seven-month delay.
* Dick Cheney finally turns on former President Bush.
* You may recall that a group of Senators devoted to finding bipartisan compromise on health care recently dubbed themselves the “Coalition of the Willing.” Well, now Senator Bernie Sanders has decided to form the “Coalition of the Unwilling.” As in, unwilling to tolerate health care reform without a public option.
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Attaturk: Fanfare for the Common Moron
Barack Obama is a truly gifted politician, though -- as ever -- a triangulating one of slightly leftest tendencies. But even if he was not, the Republicans remain truly his best ally on the road to a second term.
Mustache of Understanding, your thoughts?
What are Republicans thinking? It is not as if they put forward a different strategy, like a carbon tax. Does the G.O.P. want to be the party of sex scandals and polluters or does it want to be a partner in helping America dominate the next great global industry: E.T. — energy technology?
Oh, the GOP is all that and so much more. They are also the Party of war, democracy (in coup form), intolerance, science, and the poor oppressed health insurance industry. They're a party where an old white guy can get tips from Glenn Beck on how to committ a bad touch without being listed on the sex offender registry.
They're a "big tent" where people are free to think independently for themselves as long as they all vote and think the same "exciting" way.
I like Steve Benen, but every so often he seems to go a little too easy on the wingnuts.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, from that link about Cheney disagreeing with Bush:
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What Cheney neglected to mention is that the Obama administration is simply following through on the SOFA deal negotiated by the Bush/Cheney administration.
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If Cheney doesn't like the Status of Forces Agreement, signed in November 2008, he should take it up with Bush.
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He makes it sound like Cheney just forgot that Bush negotiated with this, when the strategy is transparently to blame Obama for problems that originated with Bush.