CUNA Slams “Unconstitutional” Appointment

CUNA decisively weighed in on the CFPB appointments dispute yesterday, with a brief sharply critical of former Director Cordray’s attempt to name his deputy as the interim Director of the Bureau. For what it’s worth, yours truly thinks the criticism is spot on.

“We do not deny that Congress (or at least the members who voted in favor of Dodd-Frank) adopted extraordinary measures to this end. However, the argument that the President must be deprived of even the power to appoint an interim Director after the resignation of the former Director goes too far.”

The brief also attacks the argument that as a matter of statutory interpretation, the Dodd-Frank Act and not the Vacancy Reform Act dictates how an interim Director is to be chosen in the aftermath of the Cordray resignation.

CUNA’s brief is one of several to be filed on either side of the high-profile lawsuit. In addition, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union has filed a lawsuit in Federal court in New York seeking to block Trump’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as the Acting Director.

I’ll keep you updated as developments warrant but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that you don’t want me to be talking about this lawsuit all the time.

What’s Next For The Fed

It’s all but certain that the Fed’s Open Market Committee will raise interest rates another quarter of a point when it meets later today. The speculation is over how strongly the fed will signal its intentions to raise interest rates going forward. Two of the key questions that Janet Yellen will be forced to dance around at her post-meeting press conference today are: How big of an impact will tax reform have on inflation and even without the stimulus from the tax cuts, is the economy finally showing signs of inflation?