With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) set to begin regulating the credit reporting industry Sept. 30, Malcolm Teasdale, author, commentator and host of "Malcolm Out Loud," thinks it is an attempt to free up money and increase consumer spending for an economy botched by the government. "Richard Cordray, the CFPB director, he's quoted as saying, 'Score-keeping by credit bureaus plays such a large role in Americans' financial lives, [and] it requires scrutiny,'" Teasdale notes. "My question is how is it the federal government is going to provide the scrutiny when they can't scrutinize their own financial means?" As of this summer, Moody's and S&P had negative outlooks for the U.S. economy, while Fitch's outlook was stable. Credit ratings from all three varied from Aaa to AA-plus. "Here's what I sum up: The U.S. government, who is kind of like you're loudmouth Uncle Sam, who never tells the truth, borrows money from the family, has a credit score south of his own IQ, is now managing our credit reports," the commentator states. He adds that the private sector already features companies that consumers can pay to monitor their credit, not to mention help correct any unwarranted penalties.
HSH.com, the nation's largest publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information, is also skeptical about the impending oversight. It determines that "the new regulation produced by the government is unlikely to create any consumer product which is clearer than the credit score information now given out when one applies for a mortgage."