Berlau Blasts Cordray Consumer Nomination and Dodd-Frank
Nicole Ciandella, 202-331-2773
Washington, D.C., July 20, 2011 – As the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul comes tomorrow, July 21st, President Obama has named a paternalistic politico to head the law’s powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, writes John Berlau, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs.
On OpenMarket.org, Berlau finds that “as Ohio’s attorney general, [Cordray’s] philosophy was ban first, ask questions later. He seemed to never meet a price control, interest rate cap, or product ban he didn’t like.” Cordray helped push interest rate caps on loans lower than almost anywhere else in the nation, driving legitimate lenders out of the state. He also supported banning certain types of loans that he admitted weren’t “quite so bad” for many borrowers simply because other borrowers might misuse them.
Noting Cordray’s success on the game show Jeopardy! Berlau remarks, “The former Jeopardy! champion would constantly express the belief that less intelligent beings should not be burdened with deciding what product is best for them in the marketplace.”
Berlau notes that Cordray’s actions stand in contrast to presumptive nominee Elizabeth Warren’s stated emphasis on better disclosure rather than limiting choice. Warren told a House hearing last week that banning a product should be a last resort, because “there’s a lot of space between banning a product and making a product clearer to consumers.”
Berlau has written about many aspects of the Dodd-Frank law. He is available to talk about topics such as:
› How the 2,315 page law, with hundreds of rules stemming from it, is thwarting job creation.
› How Dodd-Frank regulates just about every firm except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The New York Times reporter, Gretchen Morgenson, details in Reckless Endangerment how the two entities were the most significant causes of the financial crisis.
› Why Dodd-Frank does not end bailouts, as supporters claim, and actually makes them more likely.
› How many nonfinancial businesses will be caught in the web of Dodd-Frank and the consumer bureau, including small stores that offer layaway plans.
› Read Berlau’s entire column here.