Wednesday, April 13, 2016

What will the Supremes say?

A federal appeals court appears ready to declare the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unconstitutional, a major blow to the first new agency created under President Barack Obama.
The possibility of dramatic action against CFPB arose in an oral argument Tuesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The National Law Journal first reported the hearing.
CFPB has been an aggressive regulator, allegedly bullying banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions with costly actions designed to force compliance with the bureau’s anti-business rules on financial transactions. Many companies have fallen in line rather than contest the new bureau’s power.
Critics of CFPB have noted it is the only agency not accountable to congressional oversight and therefore violates the separation of powers set down by the Constitution. That principle provides that Congress have checks over the executive branch agencies like CFPB. Those checks do not apply to the agency.In creating the bureau under the Dodd-Frank Act, the Obama administration housed the agency in the independent Federal Reserve Bank. The bank’s budget and operations are immune to congressional oversight and independent of the president.
The bureau also is one of the few regulatory agencies managed by a single director. Other regulatory panels like the Federal Election Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have multiple voting members.
Congress does indeed have the power to delegate its authority, as long as it retains the power to recover its authority.   The consumer bureau adds to transaction costs, thus raising the cost of using the US dollar, it is contractionary I am sure.  But you and I have no plans to change the structure of the Swamp, and it is  very undemocratic.  We have to accept lower growth or change how we govern.

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