Ari Berman has a terrific new article in The Nation on the war against Elizabeth Warren as waged by bankers and the lobbyists who serve them.
For example, Berman details how banking newbie and freshman Republican Rep. Sean Duffy went from ignorant to informed as if by magic (my emphasis throughout):
On May 13 the House Financial Services Committee passed three bills designed to weaken the CFPB, which goes live on July 21. One was sponsored by freshman Representative Sean Duffy, the telegenic former star of The Real World: Boston. When he entered Congress, Duffy admitted he “wasn’t very familiar” with “banking issues, housing issues, insurance issues. These are specific issues that I didn’t deal with in my entire life.” Yet within a few months he found himself denouncing the CFPB as a “rogue agency” with an “authoritarian structure” and introducing legislation to give existing banking regulators greater authority to override the bureau’s new rules.Then Berman explains who supplied the magic: banking lobbyists.
“I come from central and northern Wisconsin,” [Duffy] said. “This is not Wall Street, I promise you.” Yet the legislation has endeared him to the most powerful financial interests on Capitol Hill and K Street’s lobbying corridor. In recent months groups opposed to the bureau, such as the American Bankers Association (ABA), the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), have donated thousands to Duffy’s re-election campaign. “Why is Sean Duffy sponsoring this legislation?” asks Ed Mierzwinski, director of the consumer program at USPIRG. “How many big banks are in Wausau, Wisconsin? This is all about money.”A side note — I highlighted the National Association of Federal Credit Unions above for a reason. Unlike the others, credit unions really are small financial institutions, and they should be supporting Warren and the CFPB.
Wells Fargo won't listen to your complaints about their lobbying, but I'll bet your local credit union will, if you're a member. Care to test that? Why not pay them a little visit and see.
Don't email; write. Or better, walk in and hand your letter to the manager. Smile as you talk, and remind him or her that you see lots of other CU members as you stand around the water cooler, sharing little comments about this and that. You'd be glad to put in a good word. (I did say smile, right?)
As Berman notes, there's a ton of money flowing from Thank You Street:
The three chief sponsors of the CFPB bills—Duffy, Bachus and Shelley Moore Capito—received a total of $1.4 million from the finance, real estate and insurance sector during the 2010 election. Now they’re returning the favor. The GOP Congressional assault on the CFPB is a clever way for the caucus to appeal to the Tea Party’s antigovernment fervor while attracting prodigious campaign contributions from Wall Street and forcing the Obama administration to play defense on yet another critical piece of legislation.Berman's piece contains a great backgrounder on the CFPB, its creation, and its unusual organizational constraints. But it's mainly about the Benjamins and the Congressional push to neuter the threat, with lots of well-gathered, gritty details.
Deceptive and predatory financial products may be ugly little beasts, but they're a terrific source of income for financial institutions (including payday lenders) and the CEOs who drink from them. After all, you can't get to that painfully low top marginal tax rate without raking in some bucks from somewhere. Where better than from the hapless and ill-informed?
All in all, an excellent article, and a good go-to piece for where we are today with Elizabeth Warren vs. the Lobbyists. Strongly recommended.
GP
