A Trump presidency could ultimately mean "the wholesale dismantling of every step taken since the financial crisis to make the financial system safer and fairer," warned Dodd-Frank architect Michael Barr. (Photo: Alex Proimos/cc/flickr)
Nov 13, 2016
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) minced no words Monday as she raised alarm over the likelihood that, under a Donald Trump presidency, her congressional colleagues would quickly move to dismantle the consumer protection agency that she helped found.
"Anyone in Congress--GOP or Dem--who votes to weaken the [U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] CFPB, will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families," the progressive firebrand declared on social media.
The warning came after reports that the CFPB, established in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, now bears "a huge bulls-eye on its back" after Republicans won control over both the executive and legislative branches last week.
But in Monday's Twitter tirade, Warren warned Wall Street-friendly Democrats, as well, as she preempted arguments that undercutting the CFPB would be a necessary compromise with the new GOP majority.
\u201cIt\u2019s only been a few days since the election & Wall St banks & their @GOP friends are already licking their chops to undercut the @CFPB.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146608
\u201cYou\u2019re going to hear a lot of reasons why we must make these changes to the @CFPB. Not one of them is going to be true.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146657
\u201cThe real reason Wall St & their @GOP allies are going after the @CFPB is because it\u2019s working too darn well for consumers & must be stopped.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146716
\u201cIf I were Wall Street & the GOP, I\u2019d be scared too: The @CFPB goes after big banks like @WellsFargo when they break the law.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146788
\u201cThe @CFPB has returned over $11 BILLION to consumers who have been cheated by big banks & financial institutions.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146859
\u201cAnyone in Congress \u2013 GOP or Dem \u2013 who votes to weaken the @CFPB will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146945
\u201cLet me be clear: It's foolish for any Dem to think that weakening support for the @CFPB is good for the country or good for us as a party.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479147033
In a Monday column, Michael Barr, University of Michigan Law School professor and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said that following Trump's win, he's "most worried about what Trump's promise to 'dismantle' financial reform will mean for the economy and the most vulnerable among us."
Barr, who was also a key architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that established the CFPB, outlines the various ways this could be done--blocking oversight, undoing reforms that limit "Too Big to Fail" banks, attacking rules that "protect against systemic risks," and stymieing market regulation, among other things--in addition to harming the CFPB, which could include
firing the person who had stood up to Wall Street, cutting its funding to block enforcement actions like the one against scams at Wells Fargo, permitting forced arbitration, taking away its authority over Wall Street auto lending, enabling "abusive" practices in the financial sector without any oversight or enforcement, and taking other actions to turn it into a feckless agency even more subject to attack by the very people undermining it.
Barr concludes that a Trump presidency could mean "the wholesale dismantling of every step taken since the financial crisis to make the financial system safer and fairer. It could mean exposing every American to greater risks from another financial crisis and to abuses from financial charlatans."
Ultimately, he adds, the nation is "at risk of entering a time when we all pretend to forget what we all once and all too briefly knew: those with the least voice will be hurt the worst by undoing financial reform."
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Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) minced no words Monday as she raised alarm over the likelihood that, under a Donald Trump presidency, her congressional colleagues would quickly move to dismantle the consumer protection agency that she helped found.
"Anyone in Congress--GOP or Dem--who votes to weaken the [U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] CFPB, will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families," the progressive firebrand declared on social media.
The warning came after reports that the CFPB, established in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, now bears "a huge bulls-eye on its back" after Republicans won control over both the executive and legislative branches last week.
But in Monday's Twitter tirade, Warren warned Wall Street-friendly Democrats, as well, as she preempted arguments that undercutting the CFPB would be a necessary compromise with the new GOP majority.
\u201cIt\u2019s only been a few days since the election & Wall St banks & their @GOP friends are already licking their chops to undercut the @CFPB.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146608
\u201cYou\u2019re going to hear a lot of reasons why we must make these changes to the @CFPB. Not one of them is going to be true.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146657
\u201cThe real reason Wall St & their @GOP allies are going after the @CFPB is because it\u2019s working too darn well for consumers & must be stopped.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146716
\u201cIf I were Wall Street & the GOP, I\u2019d be scared too: The @CFPB goes after big banks like @WellsFargo when they break the law.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146788
\u201cThe @CFPB has returned over $11 BILLION to consumers who have been cheated by big banks & financial institutions.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146859
\u201cAnyone in Congress \u2013 GOP or Dem \u2013 who votes to weaken the @CFPB will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146945
\u201cLet me be clear: It's foolish for any Dem to think that weakening support for the @CFPB is good for the country or good for us as a party.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479147033
In a Monday column, Michael Barr, University of Michigan Law School professor and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said that following Trump's win, he's "most worried about what Trump's promise to 'dismantle' financial reform will mean for the economy and the most vulnerable among us."
Barr, who was also a key architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that established the CFPB, outlines the various ways this could be done--blocking oversight, undoing reforms that limit "Too Big to Fail" banks, attacking rules that "protect against systemic risks," and stymieing market regulation, among other things--in addition to harming the CFPB, which could include
firing the person who had stood up to Wall Street, cutting its funding to block enforcement actions like the one against scams at Wells Fargo, permitting forced arbitration, taking away its authority over Wall Street auto lending, enabling "abusive" practices in the financial sector without any oversight or enforcement, and taking other actions to turn it into a feckless agency even more subject to attack by the very people undermining it.
Barr concludes that a Trump presidency could mean "the wholesale dismantling of every step taken since the financial crisis to make the financial system safer and fairer. It could mean exposing every American to greater risks from another financial crisis and to abuses from financial charlatans."
Ultimately, he adds, the nation is "at risk of entering a time when we all pretend to forget what we all once and all too briefly knew: those with the least voice will be hurt the worst by undoing financial reform."
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) minced no words Monday as she raised alarm over the likelihood that, under a Donald Trump presidency, her congressional colleagues would quickly move to dismantle the consumer protection agency that she helped found.
"Anyone in Congress--GOP or Dem--who votes to weaken the [U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] CFPB, will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families," the progressive firebrand declared on social media.
The warning came after reports that the CFPB, established in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, now bears "a huge bulls-eye on its back" after Republicans won control over both the executive and legislative branches last week.
But in Monday's Twitter tirade, Warren warned Wall Street-friendly Democrats, as well, as she preempted arguments that undercutting the CFPB would be a necessary compromise with the new GOP majority.
\u201cIt\u2019s only been a few days since the election & Wall St banks & their @GOP friends are already licking their chops to undercut the @CFPB.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146608
\u201cYou\u2019re going to hear a lot of reasons why we must make these changes to the @CFPB. Not one of them is going to be true.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146657
\u201cThe real reason Wall St & their @GOP allies are going after the @CFPB is because it\u2019s working too darn well for consumers & must be stopped.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146716
\u201cIf I were Wall Street & the GOP, I\u2019d be scared too: The @CFPB goes after big banks like @WellsFargo when they break the law.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146788
\u201cThe @CFPB has returned over $11 BILLION to consumers who have been cheated by big banks & financial institutions.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146859
\u201cAnyone in Congress \u2013 GOP or Dem \u2013 who votes to weaken the @CFPB will declare loud & clear they represent giant banks, not working families.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479146945
\u201cLet me be clear: It's foolish for any Dem to think that weakening support for the @CFPB is good for the country or good for us as a party.\u201d— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1479147033
In a Monday column, Michael Barr, University of Michigan Law School professor and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said that following Trump's win, he's "most worried about what Trump's promise to 'dismantle' financial reform will mean for the economy and the most vulnerable among us."
Barr, who was also a key architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that established the CFPB, outlines the various ways this could be done--blocking oversight, undoing reforms that limit "Too Big to Fail" banks, attacking rules that "protect against systemic risks," and stymieing market regulation, among other things--in addition to harming the CFPB, which could include
firing the person who had stood up to Wall Street, cutting its funding to block enforcement actions like the one against scams at Wells Fargo, permitting forced arbitration, taking away its authority over Wall Street auto lending, enabling "abusive" practices in the financial sector without any oversight or enforcement, and taking other actions to turn it into a feckless agency even more subject to attack by the very people undermining it.
Barr concludes that a Trump presidency could mean "the wholesale dismantling of every step taken since the financial crisis to make the financial system safer and fairer. It could mean exposing every American to greater risks from another financial crisis and to abuses from financial charlatans."
Ultimately, he adds, the nation is "at risk of entering a time when we all pretend to forget what we all once and all too briefly knew: those with the least voice will be hurt the worst by undoing financial reform."
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