A Fighting Chance (61 page)

director of the agency was “dead on arrival”:
The day of Cordray’s nomination, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said: “We’ll insist on serious reforms to bring accountability and transparency to the agency before we consider any nominee to run it.” The day after Cordray’s nomination, Senator Moran said: “It is unclear why the centerpiece of the president’s financial reform package has taken so long to materialize, but what is clear is that this nomination is dead on arrival because it does nothing to increase accountability or shed light on the operations of the CFPB.” Phil Mattingly, “Republicans Target CFPB, Call Nomination ‘Dead on Arrival,’”
Bloomberg,
July 19, 2011. A few days later, Senator Shelby wrote a scathing anti-CFPB op-ed in the
Wall Street Journal
. Richard Shelby, “The Danger of an Unaccountable ‘Consumer’ Protection Czar,”
Wall Street Journal,
July 21, 2011.

we’d set up the agency without a hitch:
The Inspectors General of the Treasury and Federal Reserve are required to conduct audits, investigations, and other reviews of department programs and operations. The Dodd–Frank Act charged both these offices with oversight of CFPB implementation. On July 15, 2011, the joint Inspectors General released a report, in which they found that the CFPB had successfully identified mission-critical activities, developed and begun executing appropriate implementation plans, and communicated these plans to key stakeholders. “Review of CFPB Implementation Planning Activities,” Offices of Inspector General, July 15, 2011.

had fraudulently charged their customers:
On July 18, 2012, the CFPB ordered Capital One to pay $140 million to two million consumers as well as a $25 million penalty for engaging in deceptive marketing practices with respect to “add-on products” like payment protection and credit monitoring. See “CFPB Probe into Capital One Credit Card Marketing Results in $140 million Consumer Refund,” CFPB blog, July 18, 2012. On September 24, 2012, the CFPB, in conjunction with the FDIC, ordered Discover Bank to pay $200 million to 3.5 million consumers and an additional $14 million penalty for engaging in deceptive marketing practices with respect to extra services like identity theft and wallet protection. Blake Ellis, “Discover to Refund $200 Million to Customers for Deceptive Telemarketing,”
CNNMoney,
September 24, 2012. On October 1, 2012, the CFPB ordered American Express to pay $85 million to 250,000 consumers as well as a $14.1 million penalty for violating various consumer protection laws, including laws that prohibit discrimination and deceptive advertising practices. See “CFPB Orders American Express to Pay $85 Million Refund to Consumers Harmed by Illegal Credit Card Practices,” CFPB Newsroom, October 1, 2012.

And then on December 23, 2013, CFPB ordered American Express to pay another $59.5 million for unfair billing and deceptive practices. “CFPB Orders American Express to Pay $59.5 Million for Illegal Credit Card Practices,” CFPB Newsroom, December 23, 2012. Enforcement actions have also been used in other areas, including, for example, requiring National City Bank (successor to PNC) to pay $35 million for racial discrimination on mortgage pricing, when they added extra fees for African American and Hispanic borrowers. “CFPB and DOJ Take Action Against National City Bank for Discriminatory Mortgage Pricing,” CFPB Newsroom, December 23, 2013. On November 20, 2013, Cash America was required to refund $14 million and pay an additional $5 million fine, for robo-signing and illegally overcharging servicemembers. “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Takes Action Against Payday Lender for Robo-Signing,” CFPB Newsroom, November 20, 2013. On December 20, 2013, CFPB required Ally Bank to refund $80 million for racial discrimination in how they marked up car loans and other loans. Patrice Ficklin, “Ally to Repay $80 Million to Consumers It Discriminated Against,” CFPB Newsroom, December 20, 2013. The agency regularly updates its enforcement actions at
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/category/enforcement/
.

for service members deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq:
In her first year and a half at the agency, Holly Petraeus worked actively to help protect servicemembers whose homeownership was threatened by a military move or combat deployment. In addition, her team worked to help servicemembers and veterans who wanted to enroll in college, to ensure they understood the true costs of their degree and what financial aid was available to them. She was also working to help develop a new financial-education curriculum for new recruits that could be delivered by smartphone or computer. And she continues to fight predatory lending that targets servicemembers and veterans. For more, see
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/written-testimony-of-holly-petraeus-before-the-senate-committee-on-banking-housing-and-urban-affairs/
.

turn to the consumer hotline for help:
Between July 21, 2011, and June 30, 2013, the CFPB received about 176,700 complaints—36,300 credit card complaints, 85,200 mortgage complaints, 25,700 bank accounts and services complaints, 6,000 private student loan complaints, 5,700 consumer loan complaints, 14,200 credit reporting complaints, and 300 money transfer complaints. “Consumer Response: A Snapshot of Complaints Received,” CFPB, July 2013, 6. Consumers most often contacted CFPB about billing disputes, credit card rates, inability to make mortgage payments, mortgage servicing, bank account management, bank transaction holds and unauthorized transactions, and limited ability or inability to make student loan payments (6–15). During the same time period, companies had responded to 95 percent of the complaints sent to them for response (7).

slingshot to someone else:
Rich Cordray was the new nominee for director when I left the consumer agency, but he wouldn’t step into that role until the president made a recess appointment of him several months later. During the time in between, Raj Date took over as special advisor to the secretary of the Treasury for the CFPB. Raj had done a tremendous job building our research and regulatory work and taking on other critical projects, and he was now stepping into an important leadership role.

6 | The Battle for the Senate

dubbed one of “Wall Street’s Favorite Congressmen”:
See Brian Wingfield, “Wall Street’s Favorite Congressmen,”
Forbes,
June 1, 2010. According to the
Boston Globe,
Brown “used the leverage of his swing vote to win key concessions” for the financial industry. See Donovan Slack, “Donations Poured In as Brown’s Role Grew: With Vote Near, Financial Sector Delivered $140K,”
Boston Globe
, December 12, 2010. See also Robin Bravender, “Wall Street Filling Scott Brown’s Coffers,”
Politico
, October 1, 2012. For more about political contributions, see also Center for Responsive Politics—the nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.
http://www.opensecrets.org/
.

In mid-August, I started meeting with small groups:
On the very first day I started meeting with people, Joyce Linehan invited me to her house in Dorchester. Joyce had a crowd, with people jammed in the living room, sitting on the floor, and spilling into the dining room and entry hall. The questions showed a deep level of engagement, and they made me think that running for the Senate in Massachusetts could be fun. But more important, they taught me early on that it was possible to campaign by talking about serious issues and that strong allies—people like Joyce and many of those in the room that night—would build the kind of grassroots campaign that we would need if we were going to unseat a popular incumbent. Joyce was amazing, and she was there every step of the way throughout the campaign. See, e.g., Paul McMorrow, “The New Campaign,”
CommonWealth
, July 16, 2013.

That first week, we also headed out to Pittsfield, hosted by Sherwood Guernsey and Lee Harrison, with a number of the Berkshire Brigades in attendance. The plan had been to speak in the early evening from the front porch of a great old home that was now a law office, but just as I stepped out of the car, the sky started getting very dark. We were just around the corner from the house, which we hadn’t seen yet, so I asked Nick Black, “Is this the right place?” And just as I finished, a bolt of lightning hit somewhere nearby with a thunderous crack, lighting up the sky and nearly giving me a heart attack. I figured it was a sign—but I wasn’t sure exactly how to interpret it. But the Brigades gave it their own interpretation: as I rounded the corner, I saw the front of the house was plastered with a huge “Run Elizabeth Run” sign, and several people had made their own political buttons. They cheered when they saw me, and when it started pouring rain so that we couldn’t stay outside any longer, they crowded into the house and yelled, “Keep going!” And when the lights went out, they yelled it again: “Keep going!” And when the fire alarms were triggered, they yelled it again: “Keep going! We’re with you all the way!” The Brigades don’t give up. Andy McKeever, “Berkshire Democrats Want Warren to Run, Run, Run,”
iBerkshires.com
, August 19, 2011.

a hundred had shown up:
Hank and M J Powell were the generous hosts who permitted their home (and porch and lawn) to be overrun by Massachusetts voters who wanted a look at this first-time candidate. When I called later to thank them, M J said it had been “fun,” which, under the circumstances, I took to be a sign of how committed she and Hank were to the whole grassroots we-build-it-together effort.

“
sheer political brilliance”
: For the
MoveOn.org
quote, see
http://front.moveon.org/the-elizabeth-warren-quote-every-american-needs-to-see/#.UdyC62AYR4E
.
The Street
said, “She was able to articulate—in a few words—what the Democratic Party has been unable to communicate for years” and concluded, “Whether or not you agree with Warren, she is worth listening to.” John DeFeo, “Why You Should Listen to Warren, not Buffet,”
The Street
, September 22, 2011. Chris Weigant reports: “This is sheer political brilliance. Democrats are notorious for not being able to do what Warren just proved she’s fully capable of: Explaining an issue in plain language that resonates with the average citizen. Telling a story. Crafting a narrative. I especially like the bit about ‘marauding bands,’ since it just proves how silly the entire concept of ‘class warfare’ truly is, in this day and age.” Chris Weigant, “Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Takes Off,”
Business Insider
, September 21, 2011.

“Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution”:
The speech went viral on the Internet with liberal blogs and websites linking to the clip. Right-wing and conservative blogs, magazines, and TV used it to boost their arguments about class warfare. See Jonah Goldberg,
America Live
, Fox News, September 22, 2011,
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1176435451001/:
“It seems to me, what Warren says, some of it is true and where it’s not true, it’s just patently silly…”

Similarly, Rush Limbaugh declared: “… She’s a parasite. She’s a parasite who hates her host. She’s willing to destroy the host while she sucks the life out of it. Roads, bridges, firefighters and policemen.… There’s a guy at the
New Republic
—Jonathan Cohn—celebrating her rant, especially the philosophical pillar that the rich are just basically lucky. He says, ‘I’ve met many people at the bottom of the income ladder who work just as hard, for far less reward. Between 1980 and 2005, the richest 1 percent of Americans got more than four-fifths of the country’s income gains. Does anybody seriously believe that the other 99 percent didn’t deserve to take home a much larger share?’ This is the kind of thinking [that] undergirds it all. Again, I cannot emphasize it enough: This is exactly the way Obama views this country in the rest of the world. This is the thinking behind Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. This is the thinking behind Fidel Castro’s revolution, the kind of thinking that’s going on in Venezuela—and, as you can see, at our citadels and even in our government.…” Rush Limbaugh, “Elizabeth Warren Video: One of the Great Teaching Tools on Liberalism,”
Rushlimbaugh.com
, September 22, 2011.

to raise money for Scott Brown:
Nicholas Confessore, “Vilifying Rival, Wall St. Rallies for Senate Ally,”
New York Times
, November 18, 2011.

step out of the race:
Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said in an interview with Politico: “This is the kind of sexist misogynistic attack that we have very sadly come to expect from politicians whenever there is a strong woman who is capable and really dedicated to the betterment of all the people. And I really think that the biggest apology he owes is not to Elizabeth Warren—she is strong, trust me, she can take it—he owes an apology to the women of Massachusetts. [Brown’s comment is reason enough for him to] reconsider whether he should be a United States senator. He should seriously consider dropping out of the race.” In addition, Kim Gandy, vice president at Feminist Majority, also weighed in: “By every measure, Elizabeth Warren is an attractive candidate. Scott Brown’s sexist wisecrack offers women some insight into his, um, underlying attitudes. Not so attractive.” Jess McIntosh at EMILY’s List commented: “Scott Brown’s comments are insensitive at best, offensive at worst, and just show the only thing he really cares about is Scott Brown.” See M.J. Lee, “Women’s Groups Dress Down Scott Brown,”
Politico
, October 6, 2011.