Watchdog: How Protecting Consumers Can Save Our Families, Our Economy, and Our Democracy

Former Ohio attorney general Cordray chronicles his six-year tenure as founding director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and argues for the independent government agency’s continued relevance in this insightful and impassioned debut. Authorized by Congress as part of the Dodd-Frank bill passed in the wake of the Great Recession, the bureau was first proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren when she was teaching bankruptcy law at Harvard Law School, and was designed to promote fairness and transparency for mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services. When Warren proved too politically controversial to lead the new agency, President Obama tapped Cordray. He details how the bureau’s “Know Before You Owe” program has sought to reduce impenetrable jargon and reveal hidden terms on mortgages, student loans, and other financial instruments, and touts its successes in recovering $12 billion for some 30 million Americans. Special bureau divisions protect vulnerable consumers—including the elderly, servicemen and women, college students, and low-income families—by prosecuting frauds and exploitative practices such as reverse mortgages and extortionate interest rates. Corday’s vehement defense of consumer advocacy and government intervention on behalf of the 99% takes on added relevance now that his former department’s “enforcement actions and regulatory work have backtracked” under the Trump administration. This well-reasoned and articulate manifesto will resonate with liberal readers. (Mar.)