Consumer Protections

Sen. Bob Dixon (R-Springfield) wants to change state law so that our rules and regulations automatically expire every six years (SB350).  Will this make for better and more efficient rules to protect consumers, workers and businesses from bad actors?   That's not the point, of course. 

Instead, Dixon says he wants "to provide regulatory certainty to businesses."  This is an ironic talking point, given his intention to create artificial sunsets and  almost constant administrative and legislative review processes for all of the state's regulations.

One also wonders why Dixon professes to be helpless against unspecified rules or laws on the books right now. He's served with legislative majorities in the General Assembly for almost a decade, with plenty of time, staff and allies to put together a targeted and reasonable plan for removing regulations he thinks should go.  (But thoughtful legislating is so much harder, I know!)

Congressmen Todd Akin and Blaine Luetkemeyer were two of just 92 Representatives to vote against freezing interest rates and fees for nine months and immediately imposing strict new credit-card rules. The WSJ:

The U.S. House, in a slap at the credit-card industry, on Wednesday voted to freeze interest rates and fees for nine months and to immediately impose strict new credit-card rules currently set to take effect in February or later.

The 331-92 vote comes after lawmakers have been flooded with complaints from consumers furious that issuers raised interest rates, increased minimum payments and lowered credit limits. Dozens of Republicans joined Democrats to approve the measure.

In today's Post-Dispatch:

Ethical handling, though, hardly has been the hallmark of the some in reverse mortgage lending industry. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who brought [Peter H. Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association] to University City for that hearing last summer, deserves credit for bringing these issues to light.

Mortgage lenders’ and brokers’ good intentions alone cannot be trusted, especially when it comes to senior citizens ripe for the picking. Americans age 65 and older will number nearly 55 million by 2020. Many own their homes and hold an equity honey pot, which, according to the reverse mortgage industry’s own estimates, amounts to $4 trillion.