Stopping the Complexity Machine: Elizabeth Warren Calls for a New World in Consumer Lending
Cat.: Dept. of the Treasury, Federal Reserve Board, Free Agency12. March 2010
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By Marci Greenstein
When it comes to protecting citizens from unfair credit card and lending practices, what does the chair of the panel overseeing the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street want? She wants Congress to cut through the “complexity machine” created by the financial industry – in the form of hidden fees, arbitrary rate hikes, and unintelligible, lengthy, one-sided contracts for credit cards, homes loans and cars. Elizabeth Warren wants to make obtaining credit simple, clear, and fair.
[caption id="attachment_7116" align="alignleft" width="109" caption="Elizabeth Warren"][/caption]
“I expect to pay for what I get, but I don’t want to be tricked.” That was the message, delivered with extraordinary clarity by the Harvard Law School professor, a noted expert on bankruptcy law and chair of Congress' TARP oversight panel, to an audience March 11 at the New America Foundation's Washington, D.C. offices.
According to Warren, the “complexity machine” got started in the 1980s as banks began complicating and increasing the small print in credit card and other lending agreements.





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