With American struggling to get its economy back on track, it is becoming clear that regulations coming from the Obama Administration are smothering the recovery in its tracks.  From the EPA to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an alphabet soup of regulatory agencies are driving up the cost of higher new people and the cost of goods and services.

But there is one agency that could dwarf the others in terms of destructive power – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The progressive hero Harvard professor and Democratic Senate candidate from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, designed the CFPB.  The CFPB was incorporated into the financial reform legislation by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) as a regulatory agency “unlike one we have never seen before.”  The agency was given incredible power to regulate every financial transaction in America.  Layaway plans to payday loans from businesses large and small all fell under their purview.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the agency was it was intended to be isolate from checks and balances of normal government agencies.  During the course of the legislative process, the agency was renamed a bureau and its headquarters housed in the Federal Reserve who pays its bills.  Congress has little oversight of the Bureau, cannot restrict its funding and its director can only be replaced from his five year term with cause.

Warren was expected to head the Bureau but President Obama got cold feet.  Instead she recommended former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray – a man who shares her liberal views on regulations – to head the office.  She ran back to Massachusetts to run for the US Senate.  read more »