Elizabeth Warren, the Neelie Kroes of the U.S., has a blog post up on the White House blog congratulating herself for not being appointed Director of the new Dumb Deadbeat Democrat Consumer Protection Agency (DDDCPA). I haven't followed this a lot but I thought we already had a Consumer Protection Agency (CPA)? I guess that current CPA is only for knowledgeable independent consumers; its many rules and regulations are too complex for dumb deadbeat Democrats.
Anyways, Warren says:
"President Obama understands the importance of leveling the playing field again for families and creating protections that work not just for the wealthy or connected, but for every American."
It's the "again" that gets me. What is the DDDCPA going to do "again?" Over the last 20 years (admittedly half Republican years), we leveled the playing field by giving every American who could fog a mirror a mortgage, often an adjustable-rate/balloon-payment mortgage that was underwater from the start because of government regulation and its support of the mortgage after-market. Will the new DDDCPA bureaucracy do away with every type of loan except for the 20% down/straight-line-amortization mortgage? And stop banks from selling into the secondary market. That's bad news for dumb deadbeat Democrats but I'm all for that: back to basics.
Non-DDDCPA-director Warren goes on:
"The new consumer bureau is based on a pretty simple idea: people ought to be able to read their credit card and mortgage contracts and know the deal."
Again, we did this already in the 1980s. Fortunately, in retirement, I no longer need a credit card for credit but only for convenience. But 40 years ago when I did need one, it was one size fit all: 1-1/2% a month on the balance which was limited by my limited income and I had to pay off a twelfth of the balance every 30 days, 20 days after I received the bill. That was pretty simple but expensive. But 20 years ago when I still needed a credit card for credit, my rate was regularly only 6% or 7% per annum and banks were begging me to switch balances to their bank by giving me 1- and 2-month no-interest deals. The terms were a little more complex but only if you couldn't read. Warren wants simplicity. So its back to one size fits all; that's not such a big win for dumb deadbeat Democrats. But I'm all for that: back to basics.
Warren also says
"The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over. This new bureau is based on the simple idea that if the playing field is level and families can see what’s going on, they will have better tools to make better choices."
But has anyone who paid their credit-card or car-loan minimum payment within the allotted umpteen days been tricked or trapped under the current system? Can't dumb deadbeat Democrats read? And the better choice -- which no one seems to want to tell the dumb deadbeat Democrats -- is not to borrow money you can't pay back. Will the DDDCPA change that basic law of economics?
Then Warren illogically concludes by telling us about her grandmother, a poor woman apparently born in 1873 who was wiped out when over age 60 by the Great Depression. But Warren's grandmother's solution, according to Warren, was to help herself out of the situation, rather than wait for the government. Grandma Warren was apparently not a dumb deadbeat Democrat.
-- Dennis Byron
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