The consumer finance initiatives recently
enacted by the federal government have hardly had sufficient time to make clear
the degree of their effects on common American consumers. However, unprejudiced
spectators have given doubtful approval to the legislative debt relief
ventures. The strengthening of the FTC’s powers to protect debtors against the debt
relief companies could not probably have the similar consequences upon the
United States economy as the investment banking bill recommended by Senators
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Still, some analysts predict that the new Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, an enforcement arm of the FTC shall slowly provide
same beneficial repercussions i.e., forcibly restrain the deceptive practices
of illegitimate firms.
