For the three of you who are still wondering just what the heck the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is all about, well, I direct you to this fancy CNN Money presentation:
CNN Money: The New Pup Watching Our Money
I’m sure this new agency will cast just as watchful, keen, and vigilant an eye over our money as all the other government agencies do. I mean, this was Elizabeth Warren’s brainchild, so it has to be good, right?
(If you think I’m being sarcastic, congrats! You’d win a cookie … if I had one to hand out.)
And, in what has got to be one of the most pathetic “Reasons We Need This New Government Agency” passages I’ve yet seen, I encourage readers to mouse-over the red “16,109” circle in the “Mortgage Brokers” section of the CNN presentation. Read what Mr. Carlo Panno has to say about the “sack of money” the evil bank all but forced him to take to buy a house.
Always the studious type, Mr. Panno carefully read his mortgage docs before signing them … noticed that his payments would balloon from $300/biweekly to $1000/biweekly after two years … and then STILL SIGNED THE NOTE because the broker “assured him” he could refinance before the two-year SAVINGS EXTRAVAGANZA expired. (Heard that one before? Yeah, me too. About a million times.)
You know what I think? I am quite certain that there is not, and never will be, a government agency capable of protecting glasslickers like this from themselves. (Much less those dastardly banks and mortgage brokers — for whom, I should point out, I harbor scarce love.)
Note to Mr. Panno: Next time you leave the house, don’t forget your helmet.
Rob wrote:
Yet another example of how dumbed-down we’ve become. Common sense is all but gone for 99% of this country.
Toddy wrote:
Wow, this is a very strong opinion.
mujeeb @ yesiamcheap wrote:
That is why people should be smart and read documents themselves and then sign it, ignoring the broker’s or other person’s “assurances”. And about the government agencies, you never know when things will change.