The Inequality Under-Belly of “Sound” Consumer Finance

By Federal Financial Analytics

In remarks on Tuesday, Karen Petrou will lay out two reasons why post-crisis financial regulation makes America less equal: rules are is aligned with real-world business incentives and capital standards unduly penalize equality-critical lending.  Basing her views on Federal Reserve research, Petrou focuses on the Durbin Amendment, qualified-mortgage standards, small-dollar/short-term lending, and subprime mortgages.  Continue reading “The Inequality Under-Belly of “Sound” Consumer Finance”

How to Craft a 21st-Century Equality Bank

By Federal Financial Analytics

Reflecting a lot of questions and commentary, the American Banker last week published an op-ed by Karen Petrou showing how to build the bankers’ banks to solve at least some of our economic-inequality problems.  Many proposals seek to do so via the U.S. Postal Service, but an Equality Bank is at least as powerful and comes only from the private-sector. Continue reading “How to Craft a 21st-Century Equality Bank”