Sen Warren urges Obama to remove Mary Jo White as SEC chair Antonio José Vielma | @AJ_Vielma 3 Mins Ago Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Friday, urging him to replace Mary Jo White as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In her letter, Warren pressed her call for the SEC to develop a political spending disclosure rule, something she said White has refused to do. Such a rule would force companies to disclose their political contributions, thus increasing transparency for investors. "Chair White's refusal to move forward on a political spending disclosure rule serves the narrow interests of powerful executives who would prefer to hide their expenditures of company money to advance their own personal ideologies," Warren said. ... http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/14/sen-...esident-obama-to-designate-new-sec-chair.html
Principles don't matter. It's about what polls. Warren is an appendage in the Clinton campaign. So is Sanders. Tanden saw Glass-Steagall fight as a loser for Clinton As the Democratic primary campaign was just heating up, a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton admitted she was at a loss to explain how the former Secretary of State would best Sen. Bernie Sanders in a debate over dismantling banks, according to the latest batch of WikiLeaks emails. In an unverified July 18, 2015, email, Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden appears to flag for campaign chairman John Podesta comments the Vermont senator had made about the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking. A day earlier, Sanders had made clear that he supported a proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren that would bring back the Depression-era law, which former President Bill Clinton helped repeal. "I really don't know how she wins this point in the debate," Tanden said. "And he will clearly hit her and hit her hard. Has someone polled this issue. Is it actually unpopular?" "People don't get it so it's not like sending people to jail, which people really love," Podesta said in response. "They will get it once the two of them have fought over it in a debate. And Warren will be the water diviner on that dispute," Tanden then said. Clinton navigated the Democratic primaries without endorsing a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. A separate email released Thursday further illustrates Warren's interactions with the Clinton campaign. A January 2015 email from Clinton aide Dan Schwerin describes outreach from Warren aide Dan Geldon, who was trying to clarify the intent of a speech his boss had made. At issue was a Wall Street Journal story that described the speech as "loaded with not-terribly-veiled references to Hillary Clinton and attacks on Bill Clinton’s record as president." Clinton backer Lynn Forester de Rothschild had flagged the story for the campaign, saying, "We need to craft the economic message for Hillary so that Warren's common inaccurate conclusions are addressed." But Schwerin said Geldon had already tried to clarify the meaning of the speech, saying the WSJ's write-up was "extraordinarily aggressive" and took liberties with the interpretation. Read more: http://www.politico.com/live-blog-u...clinton-emails-wikileaks-000011#ixzz4NNM0sd4T Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook
There are many things wrong with Dodd-Frank. But the CFPB is not one of them. Just like the Affordable Care Act has flaws, the wrong thing to do is to throw out the baby with the bath water in either case. Trump should sit down with the lawmakers responsible for these policies, and say, ok, convince me. And then try to find the right compromise. If there is one thing that is going to anger many people, it is removing the CFPB. They will see it affect their lives almost immediately with the vultures coming down on them. The Glory Days of Elizabeth Warren’s CFPB Are Numbered ‘Wall St banks & their @gop friends are already licking their chops to undercut the @CFPB.’ —@SenWarren Suzanne Woolley WealthWatch Elizabeth Dexheimer Charles Stein November 17, 2016 — 9:22 AM CST On Nov. 9, Senator Elizabeth Warren paid a visit to the headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, the agency she helped create before she got to Congress. The Massachusetts Democrat’s meeting with CFPB staffers had been scheduled before the election. Taking in the surprise result, Warren offered a sobering description of the uncertainties that lay ahead for the young agency with Republicans in control of both the White House and Congress, according to people familiar with her remarks. She told the staffers she would fight against any attempts to change the agency’s structure or funding, or any of the rules the regulator was working on. Warren is digging in because of what the CFPB’s work means to her. The agency is part of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed to rein in the financial-services industry after the crisis of 2008. Its charge is to combat “unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices” at banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets. The CFPB is also a watchdog for mortgage servicers, payday lenders, and debt collectors. And it’s been very active. The agency levied a $100 million fine against Wells Fargo after disclosures that employees had opened unauthorized accounts for customers in an effort to meet sales goals. It has compelled lenders to verify that borrowers can afford to repay loans and has mandated improved disclosure in mortgage, credit card, and student loan forms and on monthly statements. In all, the CFPB has provided almost $12 billion in relief to about 27 million consumers since it opened its doors in 2011. It has won praise from consumer-rights activists. “A lot of the people who voted for Trump are people who got the short end of the economic stick,” says Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “And the fact is, the CFPB is an important protector of those people.” It’s been a “hot place to work,” says Adam Levitin, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. It sure has. From the start, the agency has been a lightning rod for Republicans and many in the financial-services industry who say certain rules restrict consumers’ access to credit and financial products they want. They complain that the director, Richard Cordray, has too much power. Some of the language in the statute that created the bureau “is so broad and vague that it has let them go after anything they don’t like, even if there’s no evidence of any consumer harm or injury,” says Alan Kaplinsky of the law firm Ballard Spahr, who fought the CFPB’s work to change arbitration clauses that prevent consumers from suing. Democrats respond that the CFPB must report extensively to Congress. The agency isn't the only Obama-era consumer protection measure that could be in jeopardy. Another is the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, yet to take effect, which calls for brokers and financial advisers to put clients’ interests ahead of their own when handling retirement investments. The rule is expected to accelerate the shift of client money into low-cost index funds and away from actively managed funds, especially those with sustained subpar performance and high fees. Only about 15 percent of actively managed large-cap domestic stock funds beat the S&P 500 Index in the 10 years ended June 30, according to Dow Jones Indices. Although President-Elect Donald Trump has said nothing about the rule, his fundraiser and adviser Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, has argued that it would drive small investment advisers out of business, force people into index funds when active funds might better meet their needs, and ultimately cost investors money. “Let the free market dictate where assets flow,” Scaramucci wrote in a Nov. 1 op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. The prospect of a weaker CFPB and less regulation all around has excited investors. Short-term-lending companies Enova International and Worldwide Acceptance Corp. have hit 52-week highs since Election Day, up more than 30 percent and 29 percent. Signs of defanging ahead are driving up shares of Regions Financial Corp. and International Bancshares Corp., banks that Jeffries analyst John Hecht says are exposed to another area of CFPB interest, overdraft fees. They have risen 17 and 25 percent since Nov. 8. The threat has Warren excited, too: The president-elect has said he plans to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act. He hasn’t discussed specific plans for the CFPB. With current filibuster rules, Congress likely can’t change the agency without the votes of some Senate Democrats... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-days-of-elizabeth-warren-s-cfpb-are-numbered