Report by Fox News
In a political climate that seems to be embracing Change with open arms, it is no surprise that President Obama is pushing for a clean revamped agency that will protect the average consumer from some of the more insidious traps of a capitalist economy.
The burden of consumer protection currently lies on the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP), a department of the Federal Trade Commission. The BCP has been fairly successful in its endeavors, such as promoting truth in advertising, identity protection, and consumer/business education. But the Obama administration points to the 2008 collapse and asserts that a new agency is a necessary component of a rehaul designed to prevent the economic crisis from happening again.
With such a lofty goal, it is hard not to doubt the effort.
Nevertheless, President Obama pushed for the plans, saying:
"In a financial system that has never been more complicated, it has never been more important to have a watchdog function like the one we've proposed... We have already seen and lived the consequences of what happens when there is too little accountability on Wall Street and too little protection for Main Street, and I will not allow this country to go back there."
President Barack Obama walking between the White House and the Oval Office, Oct. 5, 2009
While the expansion of the government alarms me, especially with the likely addition of additional health insurance bureaucracy, Obama’s plan could be the shot across the bow that the entire system desperately needs.
With a new, ‘roided out watchdog agency, all of the economic actors are put on notice. Banks, investment firms, businesses and government agencies alike could be held to a higher standard of transparency and accountability, which directly benefits the average consumer.
The real effort is to stop shady banking practices, like ‘ridiculously confusing contracts’ and failing to warn consumers about the dangers involved in risky endeavors.
They should have given him the Nobel Prize for Distrusting People With Too Much Money.
Then he would have given his the prize money to the Peace Corp. Or Michigan.
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