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Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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Meltdown reveals how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was able to curb unsafe and unfair practices that led to the 2008 financial crisis. In interviews with key government, industry, and advocacy groups along with deep archival research, Kirsch and Squires show where the CFPB was able to overcome many abusive practices, where it was less able to do so, and why.

Open for business in 2011, the CFPB was Congress's response to the financial catastrophe that shattered millions of middle-class and lower-income households and threatened the stability of the global economy. But only a few years later, with U.S. economic conditions on a path to recovery, there are already disturbing signs of the (re)emergence of the high-risk, high-reward credit practices that the CFPB was designed to curb. This book profiles how the Bureau has attempted to stop abusive and discriminatory lending practices in the mortgage and automobile lending sectors and documents the multilayered challenges faced by an untested new regulatory agency in its efforts to transform the broken-but lucrative-business practices of the financial services industry.

Authors Kirsch and Squires raise the question of whether the consumer protection approach to financial services reform will succeed over the long term in light of political and business efforts to scuttle it. Case studies of mortgage and automobile lending reforms highlight the key contextual and structural conditions that explain the CFPB's ability to transform financial service industry business models and practices.
Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward is essential reading for a wide audience, including anyone involved in the provision of financial services, staff of financial services and consumer protection regulatory agencies, and fair lending and consumer protection advocates. Its accessible presentation of financial information will also serve students and general readers.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

“With Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward, Larry Kirsch and Greg Squires provide a valuable service. . . . This book is the first of this type and hopefully sets a trend for evaluating the new federal oversight established after the Great Recession. . . . In sum, Kirsch and Squires have written an insightful book that documents an important phase of an agency's history; that is, how the agency came into being, and its institutional strengths and weaknesses. It provides valuable lessons for the CFPB's growth as well as providing suggestions about how to create future initiatives like this from scratch.” ―Shelterforce

“Kirsch and Squires are consumer law shamans who have a deep contextual understanding of the consumer market and the competing interests of all its market participants. They are clearly adept at much more than reading tea leaves and their extensive experience and engaging manner of addressing the topic at hand makes
Meltdown a gripping read and a thought-provoking biography of the CFPB and the importance of context for purposes of charting the regulatory maze. This book is a must–read for consumer agencies and anyone with a keen interest in consumer law. It is clearly most timely in view of the political interest in the CFPB in the US Congress and Administration. I will definitely be passing it on to my colleagues at the soon-to-be established Financial Sector Conduct Authority that forms part of South Africa's imminent move towards a Twin Peaks System of regulation and am confident that studying the observations by Kirsch and Squires will avoid many 'lift-off' headaches and a sharper focus for future intervention.” ―Corlia Van Heerden, Professor and Barclays Africa Chair in Banking Law in Africa, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Meltdown examines the clash of incentives of the key political and industry players in a thoroughly-researched account of the complex, tragic, and sometimes scandalous machinations of the financial services system, as well as the regulatory solutions designed to correct them. Kirsch and Squires are the first to put forth a rigorous analysis of the evolution and impact of Senator Elizabeth Warren's original vision for consumer financial protection.” ―Vanessa Gail Perry, Professor of Marketing, Strategic Management and Public Policy, The George Washington University School of Business, USA

“An indispensable account of the birth of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and its tumultuous early years, with a richly documented analysis of the Bureau's pivotal battles to tame the nation's mortgage market and police discrimination in auto lending. Drawing on extensive interviews with enthusiasts as well as critics, this volume offers an invaluable resource for those seeking to evaluate continuing debates over the future of the CFPB.” ―
Howell E. Jackson, James S. Reid, Jr., Professor of Law, Harvard, USA

“After the 2008 economic collapse, consumer, civil rights, and labor groups went 'all in' for then-professor Elizabeth Warren's idea of a consumer agency to protect pocketbooks and wallets. Now, just after the CFPB's fifth birthday, Kirsch and Squires go behind the scenes to explore why some of the young agency's leaders moved in the directions that they did to fight the endemic problems that CFPB director Richard Cordray calls the 'four Ds: deception, debt traps, dead ends, and discrimination.' The book is an important addition to the public record about an agency that is controversial only to the powerful special interests that oppose it but necessary to the consumers who have a safer financial marketplace because of it.” ―
Edmund Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director and Senior Fellow, USA

“This book provides an interesting, readable account of how Director Richard Cordray and others shaped the approach of the newly formed CFPB to its role as the preeminent consumer financial services regulatory agency and the challenges and opposition (some of which came from me and my law firm) faced by the bureau as it embarked on its initial initiatives. Even the bureau's closest observers are likely to learn something new from the book's account of the bureau's early efforts directed at mortgage origination and auto lending. The book combines considerable research with in-depth interviews to offer an appraisal that will interest scholars, practitioners, and readers of current politics and policy.” ―
Alan S. Kaplinsky, Chair, Consumer Financial Services Group and Editor-in-Chief of CFPB Monitor blog at Ballard Spahr LLP, USA

“Kirsch and Squires have penned the definitive chronicle of the first years of a transformative federal agency-the CFPB. They have combined rigorous archival research with in-depth interviews of key insiders to help readers understand the enormous challenges that faced the Bureau as it took on what many consider to be the most powerful lobbying force in the nation-the financial services industry. There are lessons here for the general public but also for policymakers, students of policy making, and advocates looking to build a more equitable economic playing field.” ―
Dan Immergluck, Professor, School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Review

"Kirsch and Squires are consumer law shamans who have a deep contextual understanding of the consumer market and the competing interests of all its market participants. They are clearly adept at much more than reading tea leaves and their extensive experience and engaging manner of addressing the topic at hand makes Meltdown a gripping read and a thought-provoking biography of the CFPB and the importance of context for purposes of charting the regulatory maze. This book is a must–read for consumer agencies and anyone with a keen interest in consumer law. It is clearly most timely in view of the political interest in the CFPB in the US Congress and Administration. I will definitely be passing it on to my colleagues at the soon-to-be established Financial Sector Conduct Authority that forms part of South Africa's imminent move towards a Twin Peaks System of regulation and am confident that studying the observations by Kirsch and Squires will avoid many 'lift-off' headaches and a sharper focus for future intervention."

--

Corlia Van Heerden, Professor and Barclays Africa Chair in Banking Law in Africa, University of Pretoria, Faculty of Law, South Africa

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Praeger (March 9, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1440842426
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1440842429
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.44 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2017
The book is an excellent guide to recent history.... and things we tend to too quickly forget. The book is valuable for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of what the nation and the financial regulatory community has learned from the lending practice abuses which were a major cause of the financial industry collapse in 2007 – 2008 and the associated “great recession” which followed for nearly a decade thereafter.

Despite its technical content, the book is quite readable. Not at all dry. It includes enough historical detail to provide a clear narrative thread but without becoming bogged down in minutia. All this noted, and while the book is generally supportive of the CPFB, it is critical about the Bureau’s limitations and shortcomings (some of which were imposed by regulated industry in the Dodd-Frank bill) particularly in the area of auto dealer financing of cart sales.

The book describes a major recent government initiative which is generally working well – a very positive example to counter the too common “anything touched by government turns to S**T” world view. The book is worth keeping close by in our current era where pushing regulatory rollback is again ascendant.
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018
Hola: A good look back at the recent mortgage meltdown and crisis. For those of us who lived through the 2008-2013 recession and didn't have time or energy to reflect on the history we were living, this is a good read, written for the public, not scholars. Cuidate, CL
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2017
"Meltdown" is a really timely and important book.The book is timely because we are facing a rollback of a variety of regulatory efforts that protect citizens. "Meltdown" provides detailed testimony on why it is important to resist this mindless retreat from efforts to protect consumers.The book is important because it shows in detail how thoughtful and well motivated public officials can make a difference in implementing a law. It provides clear evidence that the quality of the people who serve in our government matters to the lives of regular people. This is a very readable book that should be of interest to anyone who follows public policy issues.
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2017
Kirsch and Squires have done a magnificent job providing readers with a comprehensive narrative containing little known details behind the financial meltdown of 2008. It is a difficult topic, but one that the authors have made both accessible and interesting. The book focuses on the efforts of a controversial new regulatory agency (originally spawned by the ideas of Elizabeth Warren), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to reform ruinous lending practices affecting all consumers of financial services. Extensive research and interviews with the major players in industry, government, and advocacy have been used to describe the factors leading to the Great Recession with particular emphasis on the predatory practices of mortgage and dealer-assisted auto lenders. Readers have the opportunity to follow the trials and tribulations of Maria Cruz, a fictional composite of the millions of American consumers who found it impossible to repay their unaffordable home mortgages and automotive loans which resulted from the abusive practices of the financial industry. The detailed description of the CFPB’s success in its early years, is an important example of what can be accomplished by superb leadership and the innovative work of a dedicated group of consumer advocates and regulators. This book is a must read for economists, politicians, legal scholars and all consumer advocates at large. The major question is whether or not we have learned the lessons of the past, especially in view of the current political climate where attempts are being made to reverse the hard fought successes of financial regulation and consumer advocacy of the last decade.
William H. Neches, MD
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2017
Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward

by Larry Kirsch (Author), Gregory D. Squires (Author)

Kirsch and Squires are consumer law shamans who have a deep contextual understanding of the consumer market and the competing interests of all its market participants. They are clearly adept at much more than reading tea leaves and their extensive experience and engaging manner of addressing the topic at hand makes Meltdown a gripping read and a thought-provoking biography of the CFPB and the importance of context for purposes of charting the regulatory maze. This book is a must –read for consumer agencies and anyone with a keen interest in consumer law. I will definitely be passing it on to my colleagues at the soon-to-be established Financial Sector Conduct Authority that forms part of South Africa’s imminent move towards a Twin Peaks System of regulation and am confident that studying the observations by Kirsch and Squires will avoid many “lift-off” headaches and a sharper focus for future intervention.

Professor Corlia Van Heerden

Barclays Africa Chair in Banking Law in Africa
University of Pretoria
South Africa
June 2017