The American Action Forum has released a study claiming that the Dodd-Frank Act will reduce total U.S. economic output by $895 billion between 2016 and 2025. But the study has multiple significant flaws. In sum, the AAF study both exaggerates the growth costs of regulation and fails to include benefits from regulation that would substantially exceed even these exaggerated costs.
“Given the extensive evidence of widespread fraud at Corinthian Colleges, we believe all current and former students deserve federal loan discharges. We are particularly concerned that students whose entitlement to federal loan discharges is crystal clear – those recently enrolled in the 30 Corinthian campuses that closed on Monday – are being given incomplete, incorrect, and harmful information about their options from Education Department staff as well as from schools that do not have these students’ best interests in mind. “
“Given the extensive evidence of widespread fraud at Corinthian Colleges, we believe all current and former students deserve federal loan discharges. We are particularly concerned that students whose entitlement to federal loan discharges is crystal clear – those recently enrolled in the 30 Corinthian campuses that closed on Monday – are being given incomplete, incorrect, and harmful information about their options from Education Department staff as well as from schools that do not have these students’ best interests in mind. “
“Late last night, a bipartisan group of Armed Services Committee members, led by Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), a veteran, upheld the Defense Department’s efforts to close loopholes and add new protections to the Military Lending Act (MLA), a 2007 law that was meant to declare servicemembers off-limits to payday and other debt-trap consumer loans.”
Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform… questioned the SEC’s proposal [for a derivatives exemption]. “We have lots of doubts and questions here about the direction they’re going,” Stanley said. “If they’re going to permit foreign subsidiaries of U.S. banks to sidestep the clearing and exchange trading requirements even for transactions conducted in the U.S., that’s a problem.”
“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we are writing to express our opposition to several of the bills under consideration in today’s subcommittee hearing, as well as our support for HR 1847, the “Swaps Data Repository and Clearinghouse Indemnification Act”.
“The undersigned national consumer organizations would like to express our strong opposition to H.R. 347 (Royce and Hinojosa), the misleadingly-named “Facilitating Access to Credit Act of 2015.” This bill would unnecessarily allow credit bureaus to be exempt from coverage by the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA).”
“The undersigned civil rights and consumer organizations urge you to oppose any measures to restrict the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point or bank regulator efforts to prevent money laundering and payment fraud. In particular, H.R. 766 (Luetkemeyer), the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015, H.R. 1413 (Luetkemeyer), the Firearms Manufacturers and Dealers Protection Act 2015, and similar bills would make it harder for government agencies to protect the public. In these days of escalating data breaches, terrorism threats, and internet fraud, we need to encourage, not discourage, efforts to deprive criminals of access to the banking system.”
With a public review process just getting underway, CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, AFR and Public Citizen have submitted petitions in which more than 225,000 people tell lawmakers and regulators to uphold the promise of strong action to protect Americans against self-serving retirement advice.
“Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform… said Mr Sarao’s arrest highlighted the weakness of regulation and fragmented markets. ‘If your kid is playing around in your house and the floor collapses, is the problem that the kid was jumping up and down or that your house was built badly? You should have a structure that should withstand this kind of thing,’ he said.”