Where You Stand Depends Upon Where You Sit

Where do you stand on RESPA reform?  It’s okay if you aren’t yet certain.  For some topics it seems that the more you know, the less you understand.  While I’m pretty clear about RESPA Reform (at least most of the time), and I’m pretty okay with TILA, HVCC and the other alphabet omelets that have all of our industry partners scrambling…..the President’s proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) is beyond my ability to …well, to process.
 
If you haven’t yet savored the Wonkish Bliss that is Financial Regulatory Reform proposal, here is the link.  Basically, the President is recommending sweeping changes to the way the financial industry is regulated.  What defines the financial industry? One description I read says under CFPA it would be “essentially anything with a dollar sign.”
 
The brief 88 page document isn’t hard to consume, but it is an awful lot to process.  Especially when you try to layer it over all of the current regulatory revisions already underway...warning, your head might actually explode.
 
What would this do for the future of these other efforts?  Break out the Magic 8 Ball for that one.
 
To understand my dismay (and please, comment and correct me if you’re so inclined) you need to know a few things:
 
          1.    I was strongly opposed to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security.
 
Yes, I knew the tragedy that was 9/11 and evidently there were branches of government working too independently from one another.  I understood the arguments in favor of bringing efforts together under one synchronized and wholly accountable department.  But it made me nervous to create a whole new department chartered to take over many of the responsibilities of existing departments (and broaden its powers).  Plus the whole name gave me the CREEPS.  The Department of Homeland Security – I just couldn’t help but make the negative association from Germany in the middle of the last century.  But all that aside, I have to say it seems to be working.
 
          2.   My Grandfather was an armchair economist who lived through the Great Depression.
          3.   I am an armchair economist who did NOT live through the Great Depression, but he assured me there would be one in my lifetime.
 
That seemed nearly unfathomable to us kids at the time.  We looked at the Great Depression as a historical event, filmed in black and white.  It seemed everybody sat around a lot looking at the camera, but when they moved, they moved faster in the movie than we were used to seeing from real people.
 
          4.   My Grandfather was a life-long Republican, who nevertheless tipped his hat to most of The New Deal.  He lived it and knew where he stood firmly on the issues surrounding it.
 
If you’d like to catch up on the light reading of the proposed reform, be my guest.  And tomorrow we will talk about invisible appendages, free markets and my quest for an educated and reasoned stance on this issue.
 
What’s my point?  Well, I’m not yet sure how to feel about the President’s proposal.  I know how I’m supposed to feel.  Opposed.  But I’m just not sure if a stance of opposition would be based on fear, a lack of understanding or well reasoned logic.