Financial Products Safety Commission

Riding shotgun to protect his gravy train:

The Cherryville Republican told Richard Cordray, testifying before a House oversight panel, that it wasn't personal, but that Cordray would wield too much ill-defined power that could ultimately hurt financial markets and their customers.

Who have been wielding way too much ill-defined power since Republicans set them free from regulatory constraints over a decade ago. Make no mistake, McHenry has a huge stake in how this turns out:

Serious economists are now arguing that we should not reflexively celebrate “innovation” in the financial sector as we do innovation in the real economy. I was ahead of my time. I said the same thing almost two years ago, and people laughed at me.

Okay, that may have had something to do with how I said it.

When the House debated predatory mortgage lending legislation on November 15, 2007, I responded in an extemporaneous floor speech to Republican arguments that the legislation would throttle innovation in the financial sector, using an example of innovation in the real economy that was within my reach: