Media

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued several try-at-home remedies to aid in the struggle against unruly debt collection firms. In a blog post, they introduced:

It is easy to see how the House of Representatives could pass a farm bill jammed with goodies for agribusiness while leaving food stamps out of the equation. The wealthy have powerful friends in Washington while the poor do not. What is less understandable is why some of the biggest beneficiaries of the food stamp program in corporate America aren't leaping to SNAP's defense. 

Richard Cordray, the appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has gone 729 days without a vote. That isn’t because he’s a radical, or even controversial. It’s because the agency he’s appointed to lead was created by a law that conservatives don’t like.

Yesterday Senators Warren, King, McCain, and Cantwell introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act of 2013 which would rebuild the firewall between commercial and investment banks that existed from the days of FDR's first term following the great crash until 1999 at the height of bipartisan deregulation fever—a 66 year-period without a financial crisis as destructive as the one that occurred in 2008. 

This morning, several media outlets rushed to report that Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler had lost his battle to secure robust rules governing the international exercise of the Commission’s jurisdiction to govern derivatives.

The Smithsonian is a national treasure. The world's largest museum and research complex, it encompasses a remarkable 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoo, and nine research centers. In many ways, the institution represents what’s best about America, including free access to our cultural treasures and our collective historical memory.

The question of student loans is taking on an increasing urgency everywhere but Washington.

Rates on federally subsidized loans doubled to almost 7% on July 1,thanks to Congressional bickering and dithering. The latest attempt to roll back the rates failed to get out of the Senate earlier this week, when sponsoring Democrats failed to break a Republican filibuster against the bill.

Low-wage workers at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. went on strike today. The striking workers are employed through private federal contractors—mostly vendors at federal buildings like the Smithsonian Museums, the Ronald Reagan Building and the International Trade Center. Although their labor keeps the federal government running, they are making poverty wages. The workers are demanding President Obama issue an executive order mandating that private federal contractors pay employees a living wage.

Today, the Senate failed to extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate for subsidized student loans, making it even more likely that college students borrowing for the fall semester will have to pay much more for the privilege of higher education.