consumer financial protection agency
GRITtv: Kai Wright: Payday Lending and the Battered Borrower
"Everyone from the FDIC to the Pentagon have said that people are doing this as a way of life ... they are trapped in a series of loans," says Kai Wright of individuals and families who've become entangled in the system of payday lending. High-interest loans are being made to the people who need the extra cash most--and who are most unable to repay. As the Republican congress introduces a bill aimed at doing away with financial reform and continues its efforts to stymie the efforts of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, payday lending will continue to be attractive to low-income borrowers, and even more dangerous in the long-term. Is our economy, still reeling from the effects of the sub-prime mortgage explosion, prepared for any more suffering consumers or unscrupulous lending?
Email this pageGRITtv: April 12, 2011
"Everyone from the FDIC to the Pentagon have said that people are doing this as a way of life ... they are trapped in a series of loans," says Kai Wright of individuals and families who've become entangled in the system of payday lending. High-interest loans are being made to the people who need the extra cash most--and who are most unable to repay. As the Republican congress introduces a bill aimed at doing away with financial reform and continues its efforts to stymie the efforts of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, payday lending will continue to be attractive to low-income borrowers, and even more dangerous in the long-term. Is our economy, still reeling from the effects of the sub-prime mortgage explosion, prepared for any more suffering consumers or unscrupulous lending? This weekend, GRITtv headed to Boston with lots of our favorite media makers, activists, and thinkers for the National Conference for Media Reform. Laura was the emcee for the opening plenary, and then stuck around all weekend, talking about money, media and politics with movers and shakers. Check out some of what we saw at the conference! The details of the compromise that finally kept the government open and made deep cuts to the federal budget for fiscal year 2011 are finally beginning to emerge--and they're not pretty. Millions and even billions from education, labor, the EPA--all for what economist Richard Wolff says is a negligible impact on the actual deficit. Is there an upside to this mess? Richard joins Laura in studio, along with strategist Karen Finney from Washington, D.C., to break down the budget plan and the politics behind it. They also offer some solutions for ways to really fix the deficit. Finally, one thing we know for sure about the budget compromise is that there was no reduction at all in military spending. Laura has some thoughts. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: Putting Some Bite Behind Warren
Paul Krugman called it “The War on Elizabeth Warren.” Yves Smith wrote about “The Elizabeth Warren Rorschach Test.” There's no doubt that the insightful Harvard professor turned administration official, tapped first to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel into the bank bailouts drives conservatives a little wild. And nothing drives them wilder than the prospect of her heading up a Consumer Finanacial Protection Agency that might actually protect consumers. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Dean Baker: Who Deserves Sympathy?
"Poverty is a one-day event, we get a report released and we're going to talk about poverty, but every day we hear what the stock market does," says Dean Baker, GRITtv economics correspondent. The problem with that kind of coverage, Baker notes, is that "many more people will experience poverty than will strike it rich in the stock market." Millions of Americans experience poverty not as a one-day affair, but as a constant, grinding force in their lives. Baker joins us via Skype to talk about Elizabeth Warren's sort-of-appointment, the whinging of the rich over tax increases, and Bill Clinton's comments about the recession's end, among other things.
GRITtv: Sept. 20 2010
"Poverty is a one-day event, we get a report released and we're going to talk about poverty, but every day we hear what the stock market does," says Dean Baker, GRITtv economics correspondent. The problem with that kind of coverage, Baker notes, is that "many more people will experience poverty than will strike it rich in the stock market." Millions of Americans experience poverty not as a one-day affair, but as a constant, grinding force in their lives. Baker joins us via Skype to talk about Elizabeth Warren's sort-of-appointment, the whining of the rich over tax increases, and Bill Clinton's comments about the recession's end, among other things. The divide in the U.S. right now often looks as much like a split between cities and rural areas as it does between "red" states and "blue" states, and cities continue to suffer under budget crunches as well as the ongoing decline of industry. So what would pioneering author and urban activist Jane Jacobs have said about it all? What about Robert Moses, credited with shaping the modern American city? We speak with Roberta Gratz, author of the book The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, and John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, about what can be done to rebuild American cities so that they are strong and work for everyone. Finally, Anne Elizabeth Moore brings us an update on the situation in Cambodia, where over 200,000 garment workers, mostly young women, have walked off the job in protest of their tiny wages and working conditions.
GRITtv: Sept. 16 2010
We've had a lot of talk this week about the Left: where is it? Why does the media ignore it? What can we do to rebuild it? And whose fault is any of this? The mainstream media might ignore voices from the Left, but here on GRITtv those are just the voices that matter--and today, for a special feature, we welcome two you may have heard of: Tariq Ali and Alexander Cockburn.From Tony Blair to Tea Partiers to Thatcherism, Iraq to Pakistan, banks and bankers and campaign donations to the time Obama might have had to make significant change, Tariq and Alexander dissect the conventional wisdom of today on just about every political issue, domestic and global. The announcement that came this week, that Elizabeth Warren would sort of maybe possibly be appointed to do something like help institute the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She will be named an assistant to the president and special adviser to Treasury Secretary Geithner, and will oversee creation of the Bureau. Though this doesn't preclude her being named to head the agency, it's still not enough. Mary Bottari, director of the Center for Media and Democracy's new Real Economy Project, makes the case for Elizabeth Warren's appointment--sooner, rather than later.
GRITtv: Mary Bottari: Appoint Elizabeth Warren Now
The announcement that came this week, that Elizabeth Warren would sort of maybe possibly be appointed to do something like help institute the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She will be named an assistant to the president and special adviser to Treasury Secretary Geithner, and will oversee creation of the Bureau. Though this doesn't preclude her being named to head the agency, it's still not enough. Mary Bottari, director of the Center for Media and Democracy's new Real Economy Project, makes the case for Elizabeth Warren's appointment--sooner, rather than later.
Democracy Now! Thursday, March 25, 2010
Will proposed financial regulatory overhaul actually reform Wall Street? Critics have faulted the proposal for giving additional power to the Federal Reserve while gutting the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency and housing it inside the Fed. Hundreds of students rallied on Capitol Hill Tuesday to support a massive overhaul of student loan programs. Proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda has sparked international uproar. We speak with a leading Ugandan gay rights organizer and a Zambian priest who has documented the role of American evangelicals in fostering homophobia in Uganda. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour
GRITtv: Compromise, Capitulation and Capitalism
Yesterday, we noted that the fangs seem to have been pulled out of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and financial reform seems to be quietly fading from the agenda. But our friends at the Roosevelt Institute are in the middle of a groundbreaking conference on market reform, and we asked a few of their guests to join us in studio. Lynn Parramore, editor of New Deal 2.0 for the Institute, Raj Date, chairman and executive director of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, and Lawrence White of NYU's Stern School of Business discuss where financial reform is headed and what will happen to us if it dies.
GRITtv: Mar. 3 2010
Yesterday, we noted that the fangs seem to have been pulled out of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and financial reform seems to be quietly fading from the agenda. But our friends at the Roosevelt Institute are in the middle of a groundbreaking conference on market reform, and we asked a few of their guests to join us in studio. Lynn Parramore, editor of New Deal 2.0 for the Institute, Raj Date, chairman and executive director of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, and Lawrence White of NYU's Stern School of Business discuss where financial reform is headed and what will happen to us if it dies.
Speaking of regulation, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has an ongoing series, "Hard Times Profiteers," looking into schemes cropping up around the country. David Vlateck of the Federal Trade Commission explains.
Swine flu, bird flu, cancer, parasites, E. Coli...what do they all have in common? Factory farms, says investigative reporter David Kirby. In his new book, Animal Factory, he exposes the deep problems with the factory farming system and how it hurts people and the environment. Kirby joins Laura in studio to talk about the book and what we can do to fix our food supply, and Rick Dove of the Waterkeeper Alliance explains the effect the farms have had on his home in North Carolina.
The always lyrical Jay Smooth weighs in on what rappers think is profitable these days, and how not being lyrical is "the subprime mortgage of hip-hop," and our friends at Ramblin' Man Films look at the growing movement for student loan justice.
Finally, Laura has some thoughts about the secrets that really shape our society.
