PayThink

Alex Pollock's "Let's Put Checks and Balances on CFPB" is spot on describing the enormous danger of a politically unchecked CFPB lording over consumer financial services, and what animates its champions. They believe the financial services industry is rapacious and untrustworthy, a great many of their countrymen are not fully competent to make their own ("the right") choices selecting consumer financial products, and unconstrained regulatory mandarins produce better outcomes than lightly regulated markets.

A poster boy for the digital currency now says credit cards are “way simpler.” His fictional counterpart in the "Bitcoin for Dummies" episode of "The Good Wife" is similarly disillusioned.

"Rich" Cordray (as his sidekick Raj Date calls him) is being unfairly stigmatized by press references to him as "5-time Jeopardy winner." As if that were his greatest qualification!

My guess is that Shaun Donovan and Tim Geithner are burning the midnight oil and firing up the afterburners in attempts to wrap this agreement up by Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Many credit unions have used an RFP in selecting a provider of executive benefits, a complex business that requires specific and detailed knowledge, especially for a tax-exempt organization. But dusting off an old RFP that was used to select a software vendor or a 401(k) provider simply won't work.

I think Mr. World Peace is on to something, and that credit union CEOs just might want to borrow this strategy for their own ends. Yes, I'd certainly be the first to agree, the leaders of America's credit unions aren't always the first to jump onto a trend, but theopportunities here may just be too good for even the stodgiest of execs to pass.

Regarding the disclosure of CAMEL ratings, Aesop recalls the fable of "The Mice and the Weasels" who waged a perpetual war with one another.

2011 acted as a wake-up call to what is happening in our nation. The very fabric of the American Dream is being unwoven by globalization, public policy and even consumer behavior.

In response to State Employees Credit Union disclosing its CAMEL rating and the resulting fallout in North Carolina, I think that transparency is always best. Examination ratings and examination findings should be public information.

President Obama assured that 2012 would get off to a rousing start when he made a recess appointment of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Predictably, the appointment generated both praise and outrage.