Tucked into the 232 pages of the May 31 Federal Register—the daily catalog of new regulation—was glaring evidence that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will exercise nearly unlimited power over how Americans obtain credit and loans and manage their money. That it will do so absent accountability to Congress or virtually anyone else is an invitation to regulatory overkill. Creation of the bureau was among the hundreds of new financing constraints imposed by the Dodd–Frank statute. It will assume policymaking and enforcement powers over credit cards, mortgages, …
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Obamacare. While advocates spend the week highlighting the new law’s effects on different groups of Americans, we are doing the same. A review of the facts on the ground and the conclusions of Heritage research over the past year reveals the far-reaching negative consequences. Today, the focus is on the “consumer protections” included in Obamacare. To be sure, some Americans will benefit from these changes, but, as Heritage analyst Brian Blase explains, the overall result is that: “Obamacare has increased government control of Americans’ …
This week marks the first anniversary of Obamacare. In response, Heritage analyst Brian Blase has provided a one-year checkup on the provisions that are already in place and the effects Americans are experiencing as a result. Obamacare’s more popular provisions were supposedly front-loaded, and liberals are taking full advantage of this in the ongoing attempt to build support for the unpopular law. This week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the Senate Finance Committee on how, in her opinion, Obamacare is already benefiting Americans. But a closer …
After the panel, Professor Zywicki, a Senior Scholar of the Mercatus Center and contributor to the popular legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy, sat down with us for an “In the Green Room” segment. We talked about the problems we face if Congress enacts the CFPA, the real causes behind our current financial crisis, and what principles should undergird real financial regulatory reform.
Creating a new “Consumer Financial Protection Agency” (CFPA), as proposed in the financial regulation bill now before the House, would raise costs for consumers, reduce the number and type of products available to them, increase the micro-management of financial services firms, and greatly increase the confusion caused by differing and conflicting consumer laws in the different states. A far better approach has been proposed as an amendment by Rep. Walter Minnick (D-ID). His amendment would coordinate the consumer activities of existing state and federal financial regulators by creating a coordinating …
This Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans marched on Washington to protest the unprecedented amount of power being concentrated in Washington, DC under the Obama administration. And even the New York Times admits they have a point: “The government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small. Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II.” And on the …
