The Bank Lobby's Insane Assault on Consumer Protection

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141383/the_bank_lobby%27s_insane_assault_on_consumer_protection/


The Bank Lobby's Insane Assault on Consumer Protection
By Zach Carter, AlterNet. Posted July 20, 2009.

Even after causing millions of foreclosures and the worst recession since the 1930s, the bank lobby is still trying to screw us.

Without question, the most important part of President Barack Obama's new plan for financial regulation is the creation of a special regulator to protect consumers.

If the administration's plan goes through, the existing sieve of consumer protections in the financial world will finally be consolidated into a single agency that answers only to consumers, not bank balance sheets. Anyone who sells financial products to consumers, from the lowliest mortgage brokers to high-flying Wall Street elites, will finally have to play by a single, fair set of rules.

You might think that after watching predatory mortgage lending drive the entire global economy off a cliff, the bank lobby would try to keep a low profile during the debate. But you would be wrong.

The bank lobby, led by the terrifyingly powerful American Bankers Association, is in full-on attack mode. And while Big Finance has several aspects of the Obama overhaul in its sights, it's fighting hardest against the new consumer regulator. The ABA has already launched a barrage of money, distortions, contradictions and outright lies in an attempt to protect its inalienable right to pillage our pocketbooks.
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[notesdev]

1. The cynic in me says...

>If the administration's plan goes through, the existing sieve of consumer protections in the financial world will finally be consolidated into a single agency that answers only to consumers, not bank balance sheets.

Streamlining the bribery process - now just one person to corrupt instead of who knows how many!

>Anyone who sells financial products to consumers, from the lowliest mortgage brokers to high-flying Wall Street elites, will finally have to play by a single, fair set of rules.

And that set of rules would be...? The one Goldman plays by, or the one your community bank plays by?

[Q3JR4]

2. Not really all that surprising actually.

They DID just get a multi-billion dollar bailout courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer (and insane congresspeople who decided to bank on the phrase "too big to fail"), and most Americans rolled over and took it. Why would any of us expect anything different?

Q3JR4.

[TexasObserver]

3. Recommend

[Klukie]

4. I can't recommend this enough....

these are the isssues that need to get magnified.

[G_j]

5. agreed

or even mentioned...

[Wednesdays]

6. K&R

:kick:

[chill_wind]

7. But-- Ed Yingling's an old buddy, says Dodd.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=464985&mesg_id=465017

[G_j]

9. that's pretty amazing

ouch!
lotsa banksters..

[chill_wind]

10. And we think he's working for us? n/t

[chill_wind]

8. self-delete (dupe)