Consumer Financial Protection Agency

This pretty much says it all: General Petraeus is going to Afghanistan at the President's request to lead the war effort there, but his wife Holly's struggle to defend our troops against the predatory lending practices of car dealers has been lost. Holly will become another military spouse who lost a battle with car dealers while a loved one serves overseas. more »

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If you have a yellow "Support Our Troops" sticker on your car - or even if you don't - you should know the name of the Senators who just traded in our troops, their families, and our military readiness for the easy cash offered by auto dealers. There's no rational policy reason for this exclusion: It's special interest politics, pure and simple. These Senators acted against the objections of military leaders and Gen. Petraeus' wife Holly. But they're not just voting to hurt soldiers: Every American who buys a car on credit is likely to suffer if this "instruction to Senate negotiators" prevails..

Call it "clunkers for cash." Auto dealers are generous with their campaign contributions, both individually and as a group. And they're usually community leaders, active and influential in local politics (and local campaign giving). The National Auto Dealers Association, the lobbying group for new and used car vendor, called the tune and these solons danced. Take a look at the Association's leadership and then ask yourselves: Would you buy a used Senator from these men? more »

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The trade association for payday lenders objected to what they called my "name calling" in their blog yesterday ... then called me a "pig."Why? Because I quoted Aristotle and told a story about Jesus. Well, to be fair, I did suggest their industry might be "evil" according to traditional definitions of the term. But that doesn't explain the payday defender who called me "Doofus Major du Jour."

There are some more civil arguments being used to defend payday lenders, however, and many commenters repeated them in the Huffington Post and in the DailyKos. These arguments are myths. They're being repeated by reasonable, well-intentioned people who have been misled by a wealthy lobby and its flacks.

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Harry Reid got it right when he said that the GOP is "making love to Wall Street" - and when politicians and bankers "make love" it's the public that gets screwed. Sen. Shelby's so-called "consumer protection amendment" failed, as expected.(!) But what happens next? Progressives have captured the public mood and are changing the dynamic in Washington. It's time to capitalize on the momentum and press for the best reform possible.

Progressives, take a bow. Then keep on fighting. more »

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The Hill published a truly outrageous op-ed yesterday by a payday lending front group, and the publication didn't bother to tell readers it was providing a platform for a predatory hatchet-woman. more »

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner delivered a populist stemwinder of a speech the other day, bringing his rhetorical A-game with comments like these: "Listen less to those whose judgments brought us this crisis. more »

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Sen. Jim DeMint famously predicted that health reform would be Obama's "Waterloo(1)," saying: "If we're able to stop Obama on this ... it will break him." It looks like Jim DeMint's crowd might be using the same obstructionist strategy toward financial reform. more »

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Recently we wrote that Sen. Chris Dodd's draft financial reform bill would create a "cumbersome bureaucracy." That wasn't an endorsement of a conservative talking point: The operative word was "cumbersome." The Right likes to use the word "bureaucracy" as an epithet, but the primary definition of bureaucracy is "a body of nonelective government officials." So what's the biggest bureaucracy in the world? The Pentagon.

Conservatives agree that we need a smart, efficient, well-run military "bureaucracy" to provide for the nation's defense, even though they wouldn't use that word. Shouldn't we demand the same kind of lean, mean efficiency from our "first line of defense" against financial disaster? more »

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When President Obama asked a group of senior executives for suggestions on streamlining government, it's unlikely that any of them suggested layers of new bureaucracy, vague marching orders, or management by committee. Yet Sen. more »

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Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., unveiled his latest financial reform proposal on Monday, and the stakes for the new legislation couldn’t be higher. more »

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