The Year in Quotes — Pt. 2
November 30, 2011 11:53 AM
"We have suffered far too long from 'Lindsay Lohan Congresses.' Like Ms. Lohan, the American Congress is a beautiful creation, blessed with enormous talent. But it has been waylaid by addiction — in the case of the Congress to spending and debt."
Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
"Under the guise of helping homeowners hurt by improper foreclosures, regulators are attempting to extract a staggering payment of nearly $30 billion for unspecified conduct."
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., objecting to a proposed settlement with mortgage servicers
"The term sheet appears to reach well beyond the scope of our enforcement role, and, in some instances, far exceeds the scope of the misconduct which was the subject of our original investigations."
Kenneth Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general, along with three other state AGs objecting to a proposed servicer settlement deal
"We have eliminated hope and dreaming from any forecasts."
Kevin Kabat, CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp
"The consent orders released today fail to hold servicers accountable for the egregious, and often illegal, actions taken against American homeowners during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I fear that these consent orders are merely an attempt to do an end run around our state attorneys general, and replicate the failed policy of preemption that exacerbated our subprime crisis and brought us to this point."
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
"As I was trained, you always want to row close enough to shore that you know how to get back and get back on your own."
Mariner Kemper, CEO of UMB Financial Corp.
"Today's letter delivers a commitment by 44 Republican senators to fix the poorly thought structure of this agency that will have unprecedented reach and control over individual consumer decisions — but an unprecedented lack of oversight and accountability."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Neb., Senate minority leader, on Senate GOP refusal to confirm any CFPB director without structural changes to the agency
"Unless reversed, we can expect to see more concentration of market power in the hands of the largest institutions, more complexity in financial structures and relationships, more risk-taking at the expense of the public, and, in due time, another financial crisis."
Sheila Bair, former FDIC chairman
"There are 15 to 20 new mortgage lending requirements in the regulatory pipeline, and their impact on the mortgage and servicing businesses will be more tsunami than simple wave."
John Walsh, acting Comptroller of the Currency
"I was shocked by Ms. Warren's blatant sense of entitlement. She was apparently under the assumption that she could dictate a one-hour time limit for her testimony to Congress and that we were there at her behest instead of the other way around. This is just further example of her disregard for congressional oversight."
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., chairman, House Oversight Subcommittee on Tarp, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, on Elizabeth Warren's testimony in front of his panel
"We believe that in total over the next few years, you're going to see 5,000 branches taken out of the system. There is just not as much profitability in bank branching as there was."
Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group
"I don't see it as more safe. I see it as less safe. My question is, how is it more safe? What's now making it more safe? Supervision? We had supervision. Capital? We had capital. Resolution? We had resolution. What's different about this? Complexity, less complexity? No. Better capital standards? Marginally, temporarily. What's better about it? You have to be able to tell someone what's better about it."
Thomas Hoenig, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, on whether Dodd-Frank made the system safer
" 'Witch hunt' is too mild a term to use for what the Department of Justice is doing to basically community banks. I would call it extortion."
Camden Fine, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, on DOJ pursuit of certain fair-lending cases
"If you look at what's happening to Bank of America today … it's a very 2008 feeling right now."
Neil Barofsky, former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and now a fellow at New York University's law school, on the slide in B of A's stock price
"The focus needs to be on strengthening firms, not on preparing for their demise. Recovery is far more important than resolution."
Bill Isaac, former FDIC chairman
