Elizabeth Warren on why we need a consumer agency to protect borrowers

Federal TARP watchdog Elizabeth Warren is warning that the Republican proposal for a "consumer protection agency" is anti-family.

"I'm tired of hearing politicians claim to support families and, at the same time, vote with the big banks on the most important financial reform package in generations. I'm deep-down tired of it."
The current Senate bill, sponsored by Democrat Christopher Dodd, which would house the new consumer agency within the Federal Reserve,
adheres to Warren's four tests: a chief appointed by the president, an independent source of funding, the authority to write consumer rules and the ability to enforce them against unscrupulous lenders. The unit, thus, focuses squarely on consumers. Ensuring banks' profitability is left to banking regulators. The Republicans' counter-proposal, released this week, fails all four of Warren's tests.
Warren describes the Republican proposal as follows: ""The whole idea of the substitute is to take a bunch of regulators that already failed and throw them in a committee together."

Continue ReadingElizabeth Warren on why we need a consumer agency to protect borrowers

Three political axis

At the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan presents Noah Millman's 3-axis political taxonomy system:

liberal vs. conservative (attitudes toward the individual and authority) left vs. right (attitudes toward social/economic winners and losers) progressive vs. reactionary (attitude toward past and future)
My reaction? We need something like this. We need better labels (than "right" versus "left"), to enable better dialogue.

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News report features what is wrong with news reports

I just watched a Fresno local news report regarding a Tea Party protest of William Ayers. Watching this TV report reminded me of the adage about a tree falling in a forest: If Bill Ayers simply came to California to give a talk, but there were no Tea Party demonstrators in sight, you wouldn't hear anything about it on the news. But when a smattering of Tea Party folks comes out to protest Ayers' right to say anything, it becomes news. Once again, we can see that raw, visceral, uninformed conflict is driving our news--not ideas and certainly nothing productive. The bottom line take-away from this report appears to be a reinforcement of the Manichean world view. This TV display of lots of heat and not much light is standard fare for television news. Hence, my term, "conflict pornography." This type of consciously-injected agon is furthered by flashy banners and the sound effects, as well as terms like "Action News!" All of these media tricks smoothly tap into that inextricably deep human misconception that "Movement is Progress," combined with our deeply rooted xenophobic impulses: Keep moving! Outsiders are threatening you! Keep fighting! Pay attention! Buy this! Buy that! But back to this TV news report. Consider the opening line of the news anchor in the video: "One of the leaders of a radical movement of the 60's and 70's . . ." Note the sarcasm dripping from her voice when she reports that Ayers is claiming that "he has something in common" with the protesters. I think that it's time for these reporters to take a deep breath and focus on the bigger picture: what was the context of the "radical" actions of Ayers? I would suggest that many (maybe most) modern Americans would agree with most of the principles of his "radical movement" (that "Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam by the United States." And see here). On the other hand, I would agree that most Americans would disapprove of the use of any sort of bombs, even where the bombs were carefully planned to explode in empty offices, so as not to cause any injuries. And further consider the failure of this report (and most others about Ayers, especially during the Obama campaign) that Ayers has repeatedly questioned his own tactics.

Continue ReadingNews report features what is wrong with news reports

Ross Perot, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin?

I'm perforce following the antics of the Tea Party movement. This organization couldn't have snowballed without the Web 2.0 social networking system to enable it. Perot didn't have any access to such power in 1992. Ron Paul tried, but it hadn't yet reached critical mass. This is probably the answer to a question I recently posted as a response on (facepalm) FaceBook:

Where was that Tea Party 7 years ago, after the president declared "Mission Accomplished" in that elective war? That excursion from reality was a significant factor in converting the budget surplus he inherited into record debt. As was his creation of the largest government bureaucracy ever (Homeland Security) nominally to do what other agencies were already supposed to be doing. Then his decision to roll back those pesky banking regulations established in the 1930's to prevent lenders from packaging bad debts as good bets, sure has worked out well.

But now there is a coordinated effort to undermine the legacy political process by uniting people of disparate intentions under a single banner. Anarchists, Libertarians, Christian-nationists, assault-rifles-for-the-kids, and anti-taxers now gather together in front of cameras from every corner of the nation. Who is the current figurehead of the movement? Sarah Palin. Not that Ron Paul is yet out of the running. But certain faith-based reports count him out of Tea Party support. Maybe I'm just confused, but I'd really like to see an actual Tea Party party in the next big election. This would be a true referendum on how much support they have. But as near as I can tell from my casual reading, the Tea Party goal is not to take responsibility, but rather to sink candidates from the other parties who disagree with their very particular simple positions on complex issues.

Continue ReadingRoss Perot, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin?