Treasury Report Says Fairness Will Cost U.S. Business A Shit-Ton*

For decades, banks, credit card companies and other businesses have relied on fine-print forced arbitration clauses to protect themselves against being sued by consumers or employees.  These mandatory clauses require that any dispute or complaint be settled by binding arbitration with no right of the individual to sue, join a class action, or appeal.  The arbitrator is selected by the company, not the individual.  This particular playing field is massively tilted in favor of business, not people.  In a word, unfair.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently adopted a new rule to allow consumers to participate in class-action lawsuits against banks and credit card issuers.  The rule doesn't eliminate arbitration, but it prevents companies from blocking group actions.  This adds a degree of fairness.

Business, accustomed to having all the rights and advantages on its side, objects to the new CFPB rule and Congressional Republicans would like nothing better than to overturn the rule and oust Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, the CFPB Director.

Toward that end, the U.S. Treasury Dept. -- headed by the clueless fish-faced zillionaire Steve Mnuchin -- yesterday issued a report whining that the "unfair" rule will increase class-action suits and might cost American business $1.7 billion in legal payouts over 5 years.  Waah!  This partisan "analysis" pretty much confirms that mandatory arbitration has allowed these companies to screw consumers big-time for a long time.

Here in Ohio, some Democrats would love to see Richard Cordray step down from the CFPB so he could run for Governor in 2018.  There's no doubt he'd be a strong candidate, probably the best, with a good chance of winning.  And that would be great!  (Useless trivia fun fact:  Cordray's brother was Buster Jr.'s orthodontist!)

But as appealing as the idea of a Governor Cordray may be, part of me wants him to stay in D.C. so he can continue to fight the good fight on behalf of the greatest number of people.  That would be Ohio's loss but America's gain.  We'll see.  Either way, Cordray's a good one! 






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* Shit-ton, n.  A measurement of quantity.  A shit-ton is equivalent to 24 metric assloads, or 1/10th of a fuck-ton.