Good morning. Yesterday, we talked about how the Volcker Rule might be abandoned. Well, today, there’s word that a stand-alone consumer protection agency for the financial system might be axed as well.
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency might be dead (Washington Post)
The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.
In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.
Please don’t kill the CFPA (New York Times)
Congress cannot pass a new law for every new scam the industry comes up with. What the country clearly needs is a strong, fully engaged Consumer Financial Protection Agency that protects Americans from abusive, deceptive and predatory lending practices.
Senate Republicans who continue to block this essential reform — putting the interests of the financial industry ahead of American consumers — should pay a political price for their misplaced priorities.
The president threw Volcker under the bus (Daily Beast)
Of course, the administration is still pushing for “reform” of the banking system to prevent another meltdown, but by all accounts, the measures floated so far will do nothing more than force the firms to hold a little more capital if they want to roll the dice in the markets. The main thrust of what Volcker wanted to do and needs to be done–prevent the American taxpayer from ever again having to subsidized banks’ risk taking–appears nowhere to be found.
Toyota’s CEO gets an “F” (Fortune)
As Akio Toyoda will surely learn, the longer he stays in the job, the root cause of Toyota’s quality problems is a company that has strayed from the innovative principles that made it successful. It has become large, bureaucratic, arrogant, and insular — more concerned with growth and profits than selflessly serving its customers.
Jobs bill passes Senate (PBS NewsHour)
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