The debate over re-regulation of the financial sector has finally, and irreversibly, turned partisan.  This helps define issues in ways that may be more familiar and thus easier to understand.

In the blue corner we have Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.  Secretary Geithner’s overall banking policy continues to be problematic, and his broader re-regulation effort is hampered by all the free passes he gave to bank CEOs earlier this year.  But on consumer protection he has the right message and he delivered it forcefully to Congress last week: we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) and we need it now.

In the red corner, Representative Jeb Hensarling is rapidly emerging as a leader.  A member of the Congressional Oversight Panel and the senior republican on the House Financial Services subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, he wrote last week in the Washington Timesthat the CFPA is “Orwellian”, because it would strip consumers of their rightful choices.

Mr. Hensarling seems dangerously close to slipping into double think. Continue reading “Jeb Hensarling, George Orwell” →