elizabeth-warren

Obama To Nominate Former Ohio AG Cordray For CFPB Director
After months of speculation and fighting over the leadership of the newborn Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the White House has announced that President Obama will not nominate Elizabeth Warren for the directorship, but instead will go with former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. More »

Elizabeth Warren: Mortgage Forms Should Be Comprehensible To Normal Human Beings
At yesterday's White House Personal Finance Online Summit, Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went into details about the still-nascent agency's "Know Before You Owe" project and how the CFPB is working to simplify the documents that consumers are shown when shopping for a mortgage. More »

House Committee Approves Legislation To Weaken Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Because it would apparently really suck to have a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that could actually do anything to protect consumers, the House Financial Services Committee has given the thumbs-up to three pieces of legislation that would weaken the agency before its even born. More »

House Subcommittee Approves Bills That Would Effectively Shackle Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
As we reported yesterday, a House of Representatives subcommittee was set to review various proposed bills that would effectively disarm the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it even had a chance to do any protecting of consumers. Sadly, but not surprisingly, all three bits of proposed legislation have been approved. More »

Washington Already Considering Ways To Ruin Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The still nascent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already on its way to becoming the latest victim in Washington's efforts to make sure American consumers have their voice taken away. Tomorrow, the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is scheduled to consider a number of bills that, if passed, would undermine the CFPB's ability to protect consumers. More »

Send Your Ideas To The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's New Website
ConsumerFinance.gov, the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new website, is live and in full effect. So is their Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. They want your suggestions and ideas so send 'em in! As they announced on their website their central role is "to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for America...The CFPB belongs to the people it serves. If you have suggestions, we want to hear them." More »

What's On Warren's Mind? Check Her Old Blog
If you're looking for insight into what's going on inside the mind of Elizabeth Warren, check out her blog. Before she became the new special adviser to President Obama, and probably the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she designed, she was blogging on CreditSlips, a group blog by several academics on consumer credit, bankruptcy, mortgages, and the like. WSJ's Mary Pilon rounds up some of her notable posts, like her final one, entitled, "Bullshit — Professionally Speaking," on the subject of deceptive contract language. More »

Elizabeth Warren Outlines Her Vision For Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Hours after it was announced that Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren would be named a special advisor to President Obama in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she took to the White House blog to share the broad strokes about the new agency. More »

Elizabeth Warren Named Special Advisor To President
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency has gotten one step closer to a reality, with Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren being named a special advisor to President Obama, focusing on the agency's creation. More »

Warren To Snag CFPA Directorship?
Elizabeth Warren is a lock for CFPA director, a White House aide tells Slate. More »

Rap Video Pimps Elizabeth Warren For CFPA Head
A lot of folks are rooting for the smart, fierce and uncompromising Elizabeth Warren to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And now the cowboy rappers have thrown their 10-gallon hats in the ring. More »

US Bailout Money Wound Up In Foreign Banks
Because of there being no data on where the money was going and a general attitude of pumping as much money into the banks as quickly as possible, billions of US bailout money wound up in the coffers of foreign financial firms, a watchdog panel chaired by Elizabeth Warren - Warren for CFPA head! - found. 43 of the 87 banks that benefited as a result of the of the AIG bailout were foreign. More »

Elizabeth Warren Wants To End Exploding Mortgages
Why does financial-reform advocate, Harvard professor and overall force of nature Elizabeth Warren want a Consumer Financial Reform Agency? It's simple: "We stopped exploding toasters. We're going to do the same with exploding mortgages and crazy credit cards." More »

Taxpayers Unlikely To See Much Auto Bailout Money

—>A new report by the Congressional Oversight Panel — an independent, yet totally powerless, group appointed by the Senate to review the results of the recent government bailouts — states that we'll get a few bucks back from the automakers, but shouldn't count on it to cover our car payments:  More »

In Which NPR And Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren Hate Each Other

—>While we were concentrating on other things (Snuggie testing, for example), there has apparently been something of a backlash going on against NPR's Planet Money podcast for its rude treatment of Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren. NPR's Adam Davidson has since expressed regret that he talked over Ms. Warren in a rude way — but despite the mea culpa, a series of links about the issue has popped up in our inbox more than a week later.   More »

According to Friend-of-the-Blog and now chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel examining the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Elizabeth Warren, our Treasury Department overpaid banks by as much as 30% for their assets.   More »

Despite Addressing Reader Complaint In Front Of Staff, Circuit City CEO Still Wears Failpants

—>David wrote a very angry letter to Circuit City's CEO. The CEO responded, and used the letter as a learning point in his next staff Town Hall meeting, making David angrier than ever.  More »

MBNA Refuses To Appear For Binding Arbitration, May Still Prevail

—>Elizabeth Warren, the doyenne of consumer debt, received a frank email from a lawyer that shows the anti-consumer bias of binding arbitration. The lawyer was attempting to arbitrate a dispute with MBNA, a difficult task complicated by the bank's refusal to participate.  More »

NPR: Elizabeth Warren On The Credit Card Industry

—>Reader Jaime alerts us to an interesting interview from Fresh Air on NPR. In the interview Harvard Law Professor and credit card industry expert Elizabeth Warren dishes on abusive lending practices, the ever-malleable interest rate, universal default and all that fun stuff.   More »