The NYT editorial questioned why Obama passed over Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law Professor and Consumer Advocate who set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for Richard Cordray. As the Times suggest, I believe, passing over Ms. Warren for Mr. Cordray shows where Obama’s true loyalities may lie in regards to Consumers and the Banks.
As reported in the NYTimes, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened it’s door rather recently this year as an independent bureau to defend and uphold Consumer Rights. The need for the Bureau is clear and obvious from Mortgage Fraud to shady consumer credit card violations. The Bureau it’s self has already tackeled critical issues and concerns such as mortgage disclosure requirements and handingling credit card complaints; however Banks and their congressional allies are pushing back. NYT speculates that the push back is an attempt to weaken the bureau. NYTimes reminds the reader that the bureau is not a knee jerk response to Consumer rights but to the tens of millions of Americans that lost their jobs, savings, home equity, homes and a basic mistrust in financial and government institutions which prevents the economy from a full recovery. The Bureau is one agency with the sole purpose of shielding Americans and the financial system from abuse, corruption and deceptive lending practices. The reality is that the banks are big campaign contributors and they do not want a strong bureau to protect consumer interests. House Republicans have already begun to pass bills that would severly constrain the bureau’s power. Obama pledged to veto any bills that reached his desk; yet in deciding not to fight for Ms. Warren, the person who pioneered the idea for the bureau and pushed it through Congress seems to indicate his unwillingness to take on the Banks and their Republican sponsors.