A bill to allow consumers to refinance their student loans to the rate currently being issued on new federal and private student loans succumbed to a painful death on the Senate floor Wednesday despite being championed by consumer advocates. [More]
elizabeth warren
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Introduces Legislation To Allow Refinancing Of Many Student Loans
By 5.6.14
Students who took out their first federal student loan this past fall will someday be glad that they are only paying 3.86%. Just ask those of us whose loans were nearly double that percentage. But a new bill introduced in the Senate today by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren would allow student loan borrowers to refinance at the rates set for new borrowers by last year’s legislation. [More]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Takes FDA Chief To Task On Weak Antibiotics Guidance
By 3.13.14
In December, the Food and Drug Administration showed just how little it actually cares about drugs in our food by — after more than 35 years of dragging its feet on the topic — politely asking drug companies to pretty please stop selling medically unnecessary antibiotics to farmers who put the drugs in animal feed solely to encourage muscle tissue growth. Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren had the chance to grill FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on the topic, and she didn’t pull her punches. [More]
Senator Endorses USPS Plan To Enter Financial Services Arena, Offer Payday Lending Alternative
By 2.3.14
With traditional banking institutions finally out of the payday lending game, who’s left to swoop in to take care of the unbanked? Apparently, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) thinks the United States Postal Service has what it takes. [More]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: It’s Obscene That The Govt. Profits Off Student Loans
By 7.18.13
There were several sticking points that bogged down the U.S. Senate from quickly passing legislation that would provide a long-term solution to the problem of interest rates on federal Stafford student loans. Among these was whether the government should be able to charge a rate that would allow it to make a profit. [More]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Introduces ’21st Century Glass-Steagall Act’ To Rein In Too-Big-To-Fail Banks
By 7.11.13
In response to the stock market crash of 1929, the Banking Act of 1933, also known as the Glass-Steagall Act, put up a wall between commercial banking and investment firms. That wall stood for more than 60 years until it was torn down by the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bilely Act, which allowed commercial banks to reap huge profits, but also resulted in financial institutions that were so large that, had they failed, they would bring down the entire economy with them. So when those banks began to crumble following the collapse of the housing bubble, we taxpayers were left with little option but to bail them out while our federally insured deposits were put at risk. Thus, Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts has introduced legislation that would reenact the regulations that were stripped away 14 years ago. [More]
Sen. Warren: Why Can Banks Commit Crimes But Get Away Without Admitting Guilt?
By 5.15.13
Back on Valentine’s Day, rookie U.S. Senator — and longtime consumer advocate — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts showed little love for the nation’s bank regulators, asking if any of them — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — had actually taken a large financial institution to trial instead of settling. None of them could provide a quality answer at the time, but Warren has not let them off the hook. [More]
Sen. Warren Introduces Bill To Lower Rates On Student Loans To .75% For One Year
By 5.9.13
While commercial and personal borrowers are currently enjoying historically low interest-rates on loans, and big banks are able to obtain loans at less than one percent interest, student borrowers have had to fight against lawmakers looking to raise interest rates on federally subsidized student loans. With the rates on Stafford loans set to bounce back to 6.8% from 3.4% on July 1, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced legislation that would actually lower that rate for one year to only .75%. [More]
Sen. Warren Asks Bank Regulators If “Too Big To Fail” Has Become “Too Big For Trial”
By 2.14.13
In her first hearing as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, Massachusetts Senator and longtime Consumerist favorite Elizabeth Warren grilled a panel of regulators on their tendency to settle with law-breaking banks rather than go to trial. [More]
Lawmakers To AIG: Don’t Even Think About Joining $25 Billion Lawsuit Against Govt.
By 1.9.13
—–
While we all ponder what to eat for lunch today, the board of bailed-out insurance biggie AIG are meeting today to discuss whether or not to take part in a $25 billion lawsuit filed by its former CEO against the federal government. [More]
Obama To Nominate Former Ohio AG Cordray For CFPB Director
By 7.18.11
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
By 6.9.11
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
By 5.13.11
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
By 5.4.11
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
By 5.3.11
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
By 2.3.11
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
By 9.17.10
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
By 9.17.10
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]
