Fuck you, consumers!

With the country solely focused on bullshit political theatre and ginning up it's Finland hate as a test run for hopefully a nationalist anti-Canada fervor on Sunday, some would say now is the best time to drop a disappointing bombshell about the upcoming massively disappointing financial legislation. So, take it away Barry!

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.

In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.

President Obama's economic team is now open to housing the consumer regulator inside another agency, such as the Treasury Department, though they still prefer a stand-alone agency.
...
The administration may also have to compromise on Obama's recent proposal for a rule to limit risky activities at banks by prohibiting them from engaging in many kinds of speculative investments.

What better way to have a agency that protects consumers than by housing it inside government organizations that unwaveringly cater to the interests of the financial sector and have made it a point of pride to ignore consumer interests? But, the Obama Administration still really, really wants a CFPA, they just aren't willing to spend one drop of sweat fighting for it and jettison it the first second some "lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy" (read: wholly owned subsidiaries of the financial industry) speaks up. If I recall correctly, that's the same strategy they had for the public option, which they totally still support. How'd that work out?

What's that you have to say about the CFPA, smart lady Elizabeth Warren?

"The CFPA is the heart of what makes regulatory reform work... We just can't pass a regulatory reform bill that acquiesces to the industry on every front... It's not ok to weaken the agency so much that, while everyone can vote yes and pretend to support consumers' right to a fair deal, nothing really changes."

Sorry, wasn't paying attention. Could you repeat that? Ahh, it probably wasn't important anyway.

Nice to see that they're also willing to compromise on Obama's plan to limit banks from acting as gambling casino type establishments. What did that plan last, a week?

I just think it's good to see that despite pulling down the world economy on top of itself in a orgy of bad decisions, then having to be kept from total eradication through government intervention with trillions of taxpayer dollars, and entirely jettisoning their credibility as experts or as people who aren't retarded, that the financial sector and banks can still lead our government around by the nose and get what it wants from our elected betters.

I'm sure listening to the idiots that caused this mess by weakening and cheapening every attempt made to regulate and improve the status quo while deciding to pussy out on actually protecting the people that just were simultaneously economically ruined by the financial sector and then had to bail them out is a smart way forward. I'm sure that nothing bad will ever come of it.

Years from now we'll look back, bedecked in our tattered rags, pausing for a moment in repose while blood is cleaned from the abandoned spillway where we've all gathered to watch the bloodsport that entertains us in the post-apocalyptic nightmare of a future we inhabit, and we'll say "Boy, I'm glad we listened to the people that shitted the economy." And then the alarms will sound and we'll all have to run, because the underground hobos will have risen from the sewers to make an attack on our grain silo. Thanks, Democrats!