Guest Post: Tilting at Windmills

By: Mark J. Dobosz

November 24, 2015

 

The behavior of literary character Don Quixote is a great example of what the U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to curb at the CFPB – quixotism and idealism.

 

The dictionary defines quixotism as – “a tendency to absurdly chivalric, visionary, or romantically impractical conduct; and idealism as “ the tendency to represent things in their ideal forms, rather than as they are.”

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, “By a vote of 332-96, lawmakers voted to roll back the bureau’s campaign to prevent car dealers from negotiating rates on auto loans. The feds have been justifying their power grab—and extracting settlements from the banks that provide auto financing—by claiming that dealers are discriminating against minority borrowers. But the bureau isn’t presenting actual victims who have suffered harm. The regulators are simply guessing the race of borrowers based on their last names and addresses in the loan files and then claiming racism if the people they guessed were minorities seemed to be paying higher rates.”

 

Once again, the CFPB’s research that leads to broad actions is often based on flawed data or having “the tendency to represent things in their ideal forms rather than as they are.”

 

Democrats and Republicans were in agreement that this was another example of an agency enforcing an action that ultimately harms the consumers the CFPB has vowed to protect.

 

Working with a regulatory body is meant to be a collaborative process where all sides can trust in the third-party data and research used to develop a level-playing field for consumers and creditors. That is very difficult to accomplish when one-side provides data that is reflective of both quixotism and idealism.

About the Author:  Mark Dobosz currently serves as the Executive Director for NARCA – The National Creditors Bar Association. Mark is a one of NARCA’s speakers on many of the creditors rights issues impacting NARCA members. 

The National Creditors Bar Association (NARCA) is a trade association dedicated to creditors rights attorneys. NARCA's values are: Professional, Ethical, Responsible