Finance (July 2009)

The Federal Reserve, the OCC, and the OTS have had the legal authority to protect consumers for decades. The agencies’ well-documented refusal to protect consumers — refusal that ultimately jeopardized safety and soundness of financial institutions and that brought the economy to its knees — results from two structural flaws in the current system.

International trade has exposed small businesses to intense competition from foreign firms. As America’s small businesses fight to remain competitive, it’s incumbent on us to work aggressively on their behalf and help them to take advantage of opportunities in international markets.

The collapse of the housing and mortgage markets, which led to the worst financial market meltdown in U.S. history, has shown that our 1930s-era regulatory system is not up to the task of monitoring the safety and soundness of the complex financial firms of the 21st century. We need comprehensive regulatory reform to restore market discipline, reduce incentives to take excessive, imprudent and systemically significant risks, and protect consumers from abusive lending practices.