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Dodd: Put CFPA Inside Federal Reserve
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) reached out to fellow members of his Banking Committee on Monday to float the latest proposal for a compromise Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would be housed within the Federal Reserve, committee aides said Monday, confirming reports in the Washington Post and Politico.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd listens to a testimony at the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington in this July 23, 2009 file photo. (REUTERS/Larry Downing/Files) Dodd and the White House have been signaling for some time that they
were less concerned with whether the agency was independent than with
its structure and funding stream. Without independent funding, it would
be at the whim of lawmakers who might want to block its mission.
The new proposal from Dodd, who is retiring at the end of this year, would grant the agency independent funding and a presidentially-appointed director, another priority for consumer advocates. But it would not give the agency, according to the Post, authority to enforce those rules. The Federal Reserve has had consumer protection laws on its books for years, but consciously elected not to enforce them before the financial crisis.
The White House has said that the CFPA is a top priority. Dodd is negotiating with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top-ranking Republican on the committee, and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a more junior member but one who has said he's willing to be the sixtieth vote for financial regulatory reform.
Shelby is a fierce Fed critic, but an even stronger opponent of the CFPA. A final bill is expected from Dodd later this week or next, with a committee vote to follow. An earlier Dodd proposal would have housed the CFPA in the Treasury Department.
Consumer advocates, along with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, are urging Dodd not to give up just yet, but to fight for a strong CFPA and force the Republicans to go on record against it.
19 Comments so far
Show AllThis is so typical of the democrats to get headlines for progressive reforms without ever delivering them.
Please excuse the cliche, but CFPA has a snowball's chance in hell. The spineless Democratic Party that has a super majority in both houses of Congress and a Democrat in the White House are merely fake progressives who have long ago sold out to the corporations.
Nothing short of revolution will change the present government.
Sen. Dodd, quit politically posturing and just open the vault filled with taxpayer money for the banksters. Make sure the getaway trucks are in place, and give the police officers another donut and cup of coffee and tell them not to worry about responding. Make sure the bank managers turn off the cameras, oh wait, we already know who the crooks are! So much for this scenario!
will ted sleep with laura? will mary find out? will karen tell jim the baby is frank's? will bill get the operation, and terry overcome her addiction to perform it?
like sands through the hour glass...(TM)
has anyone seen my wallet?
LOL
LOL!
Dodd the f**king dud.
Just what we need is another agency with no real power.
Why does the Federal Reserve have so much power?
Why does the EPA have so little power?
Its all by design ... by the people in power/with power, how it will benefit them ... not the country as a whole and especially not ordinary citizens. The CFPA shouldn't even be necessary if those agencies/institutions/authorities that already exist implemented the authority they already have.
It is simply by choice that those existing agencies/institutions/authorities do not protect ordinary 'consumers'. I see the 'banksters' and the 'too big to fail banks' as 'consumers'. They consume. They consume a lot as a matter of fact. They were certainly protected. That protection came fast with little to no explanation. It's all about what level of society you are 'consuming' from and where that 'protection' is going to.
If either political party cared at all about what is going on with and happening to ordinary citizens there would be no hesitation in formation of the CFPA as a fully funded agency with law enforcement authority. Hopefully such an agency would have the balls to enforce ordinary 'consumer' protection laws that others have refused to.
Maybe a good start would be to clarify what is considered a 'consumer'. What qualifies as 'consumer'? Perhaps change it from 'consumer' financial protection agency to 'ORDINARY, ACTUAL, REAL, BREATHING, HUMAN CITIZEN' FINANCIAL PROTECTION AGENCY ... especially now that corporations are considered to have the rights of citizens.
So just how much are the taxpayers spending on a consumer protection agency which has no enforcement authority? And all they can do is squawk at the FED "LOOK! They're stealing us blind again!" And the FED will do what it always does - nothing. Sounds like a Potemkin village to me. But so does the rest of our government.
Until the people realize the only power we have is to vote only for Independents who don't take any corporate money, the corporations will continue to ruin our country and run us into the ground. The right and the left have a common enemy who has been successfully dividing and conquering us. We should put an end to that and join forces for this class war. Until we do we will continue to lose it.
By the way, I expected nothing better from Dodd. And just where is he headed when he retires??
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
To your (rhetorical) question, it looks as if Dodd is not doddering off to spend more time with the brats after all. He's feathering his own nest as a banksters' lobbyist.
Just when you think it can't possibly get worse, this tragicomic theater gets ... well, impossibly absurd. In such an animal house circus, what better place could there be to put the sheep pen than right in the wolves' den, the chicken coop in the fox burrow?
These events seem part of a bizarre endgame in an alternate universe, where the casino players are deliriously unhinged, the roulette wheels have lost their bearings and are about to wobble off. Yup, we live in very intersting times.
I related news, the movie 2012 comes out on DVD today.
Wow, this is a great idea - where better to place the hen than inside the foxhouse?
Goebbels,
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Greenspan and Bernanke have created an environment where the too-big-to-fail hedge fund banksters have pillaged the citizens of this country.
As if congress believes the Federal Reserve will enforce any laws in the future that would protect consumers if the laws don't increase their profits!
The people on Capitol Hill are useless!
"Useless" is the BEST thing one can say about the people on Capitol Hill; "lethal" is more accurate, at least regarding the welfare of the common, unprivileged US citizen.
I'm reminded of writer Grim's appearance on "Democracy Now" not long ago, when Dodd and Sen. Byron Dorgan each announced that they would retire after their current term.
Ryan Grim is a standard by-the-numbers "inside politics" reporter; he's not particularly skeptical, cynical, or critical of the process or persons he covers on his Capitol Hill beat.
So it is particularly noteworthy that Grim threw cold water on the optimistic hope that Dodd and Dorgan, now free from being beholden to constituents because they have "nothing to lose", would use their remaining time to really raise hell and rock the boat to advance the causes to which they'd assiduously paid lip service during their careers.
I can't remember whether Amy Goodman quoted sources expressing this hope, or if she posed it as a "straw man" question. But Grim discounted the prospects of either politician attempting a "Last Hurrah" to strike blows against the empire.
Instead, Grim pointed out, it was far likelier that these pols would preserve their excellent relationships with the institutions they'd been partnering with and pretending to regulate during their careers-- if anything, they would be LESS inclined to start any "trouble" that might jeopardize prospects of lucrative employment with their partners.
Even in dumbed-down Amerika, Dodd's fatuous concept of "in-house" regulation insults the collective intelligence. It would be a bad joke, except it's not funny.
And the Dodds (and Dorgans) of the world OUGHT to serve as object lessons to put paid to the forlorn and wistful hope that "more and better Democrats" will turn things around.
I like and respect Gleen Greenwald, but I'm not about to waste money (as I would've, pre-2006 elections) supporting a challenger to the abominable Blanche Lincoln. Why not? Because I'm certain that Lieutenant Governor Blop, or whatever his name is (haven't read the Nichols article yet) will turn out to be a rising Dodd at best. And that's not a compliment.
If Blop manages to unseat Lincoln, I guarantee that within DAYS, it will become clear that a priority for this freshman senator is to get Obama re-elected. All of the sweet sounds he'll make during the campaign as a Pied Piper of true reform will be replaced by the discordant squawks of "pragmatic" contingencies: he's learning the ropes; he doesn't have sufficient seniority, clout, or rank to force the issues, etc.
By the time the confetti is vacuumed up, Blop will be firmly esconced in a Brahma bull-sized veal pen.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Do you remember, a little while ago there was some speculation, with Dodd retiring, as to whether he would be free of the need to raise corporate money for re-election and do all the things for Americans that he supposedly really wanted to do...
or whether Dodd, free from the wories about an election, would cash in by doing all the unpopular things that the banks wanted, and get himself his plum lobbying position.
Anyone got an idea which way he went?
I must have sensed your question, because I didn't see it until after I wrote a response [published 2:01 pm] that addresses it!
Great minds? ;)
· Yr Obd't Servant
This Idea - It is Ludicrous. It is Insane. Inside the FED?!?
Lunacy of the highest order.
Maybe for the first time in a month (decade?) I felt somewhat heartened on the political front: There is strong uninimity on the comments on this thread! Thanks to all posters.
Re comment 'tragicomic' from Doug Terpstra-- There is a book (great at times, horribly obscure at others) called "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce." All this crap happened before but was 'tragic' because it was an expression of the human inadequacy of 'leaders' who intended better. This is a more or less classic idea of what 'tragedy' is. When it repeats itself as in our own time with Dodd, Barak, Pelosi, Reid (and too many other good democrats and republicans to mention) it is no longer 'tragic' because none of these hypsters believe their own bull anymore. Public disaster on an unprecedented scale but I've got mine so, who cares?
I have to say this depth of depraved indifference is not making me laugh.
-"There is strong uninimity on the comments on this thread!'
No there isn't!!!!
What a stupid spinless idiot he is...Keep in mind that Dodd went along with Kennedy, Kerry, and Lieberman and voted for Nafta, in a deal that ruined our economy. There is no limit
to the damage Dodd has done to this country. He should resign his seat now. I doubt if the people in this country realize the damage Dodd has done and the fact that Obama has been supporting him. We get our turn next election..
What a stupid spinless idiot he is...Keep in mind that Dodd went along with Kennedy, Kerry, and Lieberman and voted for Nafta, in a deal that ruined our economy. There is no limit
to the damage Dodd has done to this country. He should resign his seat now. I doubt if the people in this country realize
the damage Dodd has done and the fact that Obama has been supporting him. We get our turn next election..