Barack Obama Touts Government Consumer Agency

June 30. 2009

President Barack Obama has been touting his newly created consumer unit, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but banks have been crying foul.

As I see it, if a corporation has nothing to hide, it should not be afraid of oversight and regulation. Why would anyone with proper motive, want the system to remain broken in the manner it currently exists.

Treasury details new consumer agency; banks cry foul

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Tuesday sent Congress a detailed plan to create one of the most ambitious parts of the president's proposed overhaul of financial regulation, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The Treasury Department's proposal would gather consumer protection powers that now are spread among many bank regulators and place them under a single roof. If it's enacted, this would be a huge step by government into private banking after a hands-off approach for the past two decades.

For ordinary Americans, the most important feature is that the agency would have the sole mission of consumer protection. One lesson of the financial crisis is that the several agencies that shared that responsibility made it a lower priority than their other missions and failed to protect consumers.

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