When it comes to opposing financial reform, banksters' inconsistency is their consistency
While Wall Street is spending millions opposing the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel, points out today in Politico that just a few years ago the American Bankers Association had argued just the opposite. In 2006, the ABA argued that consumer protection duties should not be given to banking regulators because it would create “confusion.” Those duties should be handled by a separate entity, the bankers said in a memo to federal officials. Warren calls out the ABA:
The lobbyists’ consistent theme is unmistakable: They oppose meaningful rules in the consumer credit market.
In 2006, they opposed any structure that might have produced rules to rein in subprime mortgage lending. In 2010, they oppose any structure that might rein in a broader array of tricks and traps.