This Fight Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren

Author:Elizabeth Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

SECRET SECRETS

The same techniques that can be used to sell soap and cat food can also be used to sell really bad policies. But with soap and cat food, at least we know who is paying—and that reminds us to keep a hand on our wallets. Not so with ads aimed at tilting the political playing field in favor of giant corporations.

Okay, I’ll admit it right up front: I’ve appeared in one of these ads, and it was just plain bizarre. Here’s the backstory.

Coming out of the financial crash of 2008, I proposed that the government set up the consumer agency mentioned earlier—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—and when Dodd-Frank passed, the agency came into being. Its mission was simple: make sure families don’t get cheated on financial contracts like mortgages and credit cards. So far, the agency has handled more than a million complaints and forced big banks to return nearly $12 billion that they had scammed from families. In 2016, when Wells Fargo was caught trying to boost its profits by creating a couple million fake accounts, it was the CFPB that smacked it with a $185 million fine.

For the big banks, that’s the problem: the CFPB works. Families are doing a little better—$12 billion better. And financial institutions are doing a little worse—$12 billion worse. In fact, the true impact of the consumer agency is greater than that, because at least a few financial institutions have noticed that there’s now a cop on the beat and so decided to dial back on padding the bottom line by cheating people.

Some banks may tolerate the CFPB, but a lot of Wall Street financiers hate it, so they spend heavy-duty bucks lobbying against it. Enter: the American Action Network.

AAN is the same group that a few years ago made the bizarre accusation that Democrats want to give Viagra to sex offenders. This time around, it stepped up and spent millions of dollars on a television commercial suggesting that the CFPB is some kind of Commie plot. And here’s where I come in. The commercial featured a photo of me imposed on a Chairman Mao–style banner hanging above a hall full of robotic-looking workers. It was my “Mao and me” moment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.