Democracy News: Obama Proposes Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Mission News & Events Masthead

June 22, 2009

Obama Proposes Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

President Barack Obama has proposed the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, an idea first written about in Democracy by law professor Elizabeth Warren. As The Wall Street Journal and Time have reported, the agency will be based on Warren's 2007 Democracy article, "Unsafe At Any Rate." Warren wrote then:

Just as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) protects buyers of goods and supports a competitive market, we need the same for consumers of financial products – a new regulatory regime, and even a new regulatory body, to protect consumers who use credit cards, home mortgages, car loans, and a host of other products. The time has come to put scaremongering to rest and to recognize that regulation can often support and advance efficient and more dynamic markets.

You can read the full article here.

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