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Marketplace: Fighting for the CFPA

Scratch Pad with Scott Jagow
Marketplace, March 2, 2010

It appears Senators are close to a deal on financial regulatory reform. But as I reported yesterday, this deal would put the Consumer Financial Protection Agency in the hands of the Federal Reserve’s bank regulators instead of making it a stand-alone agency. The question now is: Will the president and others fight for an independent CFPA?

Firedoglake: Dodd Proposal Would Place Consumer Protection Agency Right Where It Is Already

By: David Dayen
Firedoglake, March 2, 2010

Chris Dodd, currently in the bargaining stage on financial reform, has bargained down the Consumer Financial Protection Agency entirely down to nothing. I mean literally nothing.

The chairman of the Senate banking committee is seeking Democratic support for a Republican proposal to house a new consumer-protection regulator inside the Federal Reserve, a compromise that could clear the way for bipartisan legislation on financial reform, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

Washington Examiner: Obama aims lower for financial reform package

By Julie Mason, White House Correspondent
Washington Examiner, March 2, 2010

The White House may be willing to compromise on creating a new consumer financial protection agency, as lawmakers debate watered-down alternatives to the administration proposal.

President Obama has been pushing to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee credit cards and loans, as part of a larger overhaul of financial regulation in the wake of the 2008 banking meltdown.

The Hill: Tim Duncan, A brighter future for financial reform

By Tim Duncan
The Hill, 2/25/10

It’s tough being a banker these days. Everyone from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama is using bankers as punching bags in the national media, and bankers, bonuses and bailouts seem to have become the three most important words in American politics. Wall Street executives have sunk below politicians and lawyers in the eyes of Americans, and college graduates are viewing teaching and the Peace Corp as more attractive options to jobs in finance for the first time in decades.

South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce: Fixing the Small Business Lending Crisis

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Frank Knapp, The S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Phone: 803.252.5733, E-mail: Sbchamber [at] scsbc [dot] org

Fixing The Small Business Lending Crisis

Columbia, SC (February 24, 2010) — The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce has announced its support for three Congressional legislative efforts to help re-energize the small business loan market and protect the small business borrower.

New York Times: Administration Makes Push for Consumer Agency

By Sewell Chan
New York Times, Feb 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration continued its push on Tuesday for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that could regulate mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. The agency has emerged as the main stumbling block in the Congressional debate over legislation to overhaul financial regulations.

The Green Sheet: Senate called on to approve agency

The Green Sheet, February 22, 2010

Business for Shared Prosperity, a U.S. network of business owners, executives and investors, prepared a statement containing hundreds of signatures of business people across the nation, requesting U.S. Senate approval of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection agency. In a Feb. 4, 2010, press release, the network said the agency would safeguard businesses, consumers and the American Dream.

BNET: Why Small Businesses Need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency

By Alain Sherter

What happens if financial lobbyists kill the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency? Then “we’ll be at the mercy of [banks'] lending practices,” says Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

Or in other words, we’ll be stuck with the status quo. That’s a disaster for small businesses, meaning the country at large.

Portfolio: Order of Protection

By Gary Weiss
Portfolio, Feb 16, 2010
Plans for a consumer financial watchdog agency are in danger of going down in flames.

President Obama’s financial market reform proposals are getting what was known in the Cold War as the “salami” treatment. That’s the name that used to be given to Soviet negotiating tactics, which whittled down the other side piece by piece. So it is with the centerpiece of the market reform plan, a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would protect the public from unfair Wall Street practices.