Still the Biggest Skeleton in the Game?
If you missed the big show in New York City last week of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you might have missed what I consider the biggest skeleton in the game. If you missed what I consider the biggest skeleton in the game, you might consider joining us over the next few weeks, beginning on November 4th in our New York City forum.
The CFPB’s annual conference, held at the Ritz Carlton in New York City, brings together regulators, business, nonprofit and government leaders from across the nation and around the globe.
At the forefront of the discussion were regulators such as Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler.
The event was meant to gather a broad cross-section of stakeholders to discuss financial policy. I was able to catch a brief interview with Mr. Bernanke following the session on the “role of the financial system in job creation.”
I was, no joke, thrilled to meet Mr. Bernanke, a person not frequently in the public eye. As with the CFPB, I found the session interesting.
Mr. Bernanke, the Secretary of the Treasury, described the regulatory roles for regulators and spoke in generalities about how the economy and the financial system work, but nothing specific (you’ll have to click through the full video in order to watch the full conversation if you want to see what I’m talking about).
But the most interesting part of the CFPB event was not how Mr. Bernanke spoke, but how the other regulators did, especially on those topics that were most significant to them: housing, credit card regulations, and consumer financial protection.
Let’s start with Mr. Bernanke on the role of the financial system as an “instrument” of job creation.
Bernanke:
I’m the Treasury Secretary and I work with my team to make sure we’re keeping the