Did Richard Cordray call you?

Richard Cordray never called me either.

I have been patiently waiting in my favorite chair with my feet stretched out anxious to hear the news on the new CFPB rules.

Dag-nab-it, his Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just released new rules to protect the American dream without my input. He did seek and receive the advice of several large banks and of course Goldman Sachs. Wait a goll-darned minute, was it not the lenders that caused this problem in the first place? I believe the CFPB  had a budget of $100 million, which should have covered at least one phone call to reach me in Kansas, but I suspect it covered many meetings with the lender's executives.

The core concept of the new CFPB rules is the lenders "can not make loans that people can not afford." I am relieved with this rule.  The CFPB has issued lenders some loose guidelines for determining a person's affordability, but the CFPB also enumerates circumstances where lenders can make loans that violate the CFPB guidelines and presumably then that allows lenders to make loans that a citizen can not afford, anyway. You may wish to read the last two sentences again slowly to grasp the meaning. Now here is the part the lenders must like. If they follow these guidelines, then the lenders will have more legal protection from lawsuits created by defaulted mortgages.

Oh shucks and lest I forget, another CFPB rule is that if you apply for a loan modification, the lender will have to help you. Actually the new rules only require a lender to help you "if help is available." The next time a lender does not help you, make sure you remind the lender of the new CFPB rules. I am sure they will have a set right by the waiting room in their office.

The problem the CFPB is purporting to solve is eliminate mortgages given to people who can not afford them. One expert estimated that these rules would have prevented 30% of the mortgages that were made during the "crisis meltdown period" that never defaulted. In other words, these loans, approximately a million or so, were made to families who according to the CFPB rules could not afford the loans, yet magically could.

Gee-whiz bob, the government is only acting to protect us from ourselves. The CPFB is acting in our best interests to minimize lender litigation. "Here he comes to save the day."

I feel so much better knowing that I could not get a loan to buy the home I have lived in for 13 years and never missed a payment.

My apologies but I must go in a corner and cry for awhile.

webtalkwithbob