A Fighting Chance

was “positively Orwellian”: Hensarling’s op-ed first appeared in the Washington Times in July 2009. He argued that the agency would “have the power to strip from consumers their freedom of choice and restrict their credit opportunities.” He also argued that it would harm consumers by “stifling innovation” and would create “less competitive markets.” He concludes that “the CFPA says to the American people, ‘You are simply too ignorant or too dumb to be trusted with financial products.’” He advocates an alternative Republican plan to focus on more disclosures. Jeb Hensarling, “Punishing Consumers to Protect Them,” Washington Times, July 22, 2009.

eye on the credit-reporting companies: For example, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) issued a 2009 overview of studies and surveys on the extent and impact of errors on credit reports. Studies from PIRG and Consumers Union estimated that 25 percent of credit reports had errors serious enough to cause a denial of credit. Over half of the participants in a Federal Trade Commission study found an error in their credit reports, and a quarter of those participants had a materially harmful error. The types of errors found across studies included mixed files (where one consumer was mistaken for another, and vice versa), identity theft, incorrect payment history, ownership dispute, and “re-aging” of debt (where debt that gets charged off after a certain amount of time is added back on by misrepresenting the date the debt was incurred). Consumers’ lengthy written complaints were reduced to one of a handful of two or three letter codes and rarely investigated. See Chi Chi Wu, “Automated Injustice: How a Mechanized Dispute System Frustrates Consumers Seeking to Fix Errors in Their Credit Reports,” National Consumer Law Center, January 2009, http://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/pr-reports/report-automated_injustice.pdf. See also “Credit Score Accuracy and Implications for Consumers,” Consumer Federation of America, December 17, 2002, http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/121702CFA_NCRA_Credit_Score_Report_Final.pdf.

Progressive bloggers joined the fight: Many bloggers criticized Senator Dodd for his signals to exclude the agency, and they started a campaign to push him to keep the agency in the bill. One blog referenced a lobbyist who said that Dodd was paying back the bankers for keeping him in office for so long. It also depicted a cartoon of Dodd’s “Dance Card,” listing individuals who would benefit from the agency—“Overworked Olivia” and “Bankrupt Betty.” At the end of the list was “Wall Street Fat Cats,” crossed out. Mary Bottari, “Senator Dodd’s Dilemma: Who to Take the Ball?,” Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch, January 19, 2010. The dance card was sent around as a petition, with the language “Senator Dodd, Tell Wall Street You Have a New Dance Partner!,” banksterusa.org, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/632/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2040.

Mike Lux played a critical role in introducing me to bloggers and activists and advising me on how to organize people through new media. More generally, he rallied support for the consumer agency from a broad cross-section of people and made a real difference. He understood the importance of this fight early on, and he has also stood strong for the consumer agency and financial reform ever since.

a guy named Rich Cordray: Attorneys General Tom Miller (IA), Lisa Madigan (IL), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Richard Cordray (OH) spoke out in favor of the agency. Cordray emphasized that “until we establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, we will continue to have a regulatory black hole when it comes to many of the deceptive practices and products.” Austin Kilgore, “Democrat Attorneys General Push for Consumer Financial Protection Agency,” Housingwire.com, February 9, 2010. Martha Coakley, attorney general for Massachusetts, and I wrote an op-ed in the New Republic, strongly advocating for a new agency. She was always ready to speak up on behalf of the agency. Martha Coakley and Elizabeth Warren, “The Right Way to Regulate,” New Republic, November 18, 2009.

published editorials and op-eds about the agency: For examples of columns supporting the agency leading up to the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of financial reform, see Barbara Kiviat, “Don’t Kill the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Part 2,” Time, February 19, 2010. See also Michael Grunwald, “The Case for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency,” Time, February 17, 2010. See also Ezra Klein, “Don’t Kill the Public Option of Financial Reform,” Washington Post, January 15, 2010. See also Paul Krugman, “Financial Reform Endgame,” New York Times, February 28, 2010.

water down the agency: Interview by Chris Matthews with Chris Dodd (March 2, 2010), available at nbcnews.com. See also Jim Puzzanghera, “Dodd Moves to Scale Back Consumer Financial Protection Agency Plan,” Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2010.