When it comes to besmirching the honor of honest sex workers and gunsels, count on Wall Street. Lee Fang reports at The Nation:
Professor Todd Zywicki is vying to be the toughest critic of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency set up by the landmark Dodd-Frank financial reform law to monitor predatory lending practices. In research papers and speeches, Zywicki not only routinely slams the CFPB’s attempts to regulate bank overdraft fees and payday lenders; he depicts the agency as a “parochial” bureaucracy that is “guaranteed to run off the rails.” He has also become one of the leading detractors of the CFPB’s primary architect, Elizabeth Warren, questioning her seminal research on medical bankruptcies and slamming her for once claiming Native American heritage to gain “an edge in hiring.”…
What isn’t contained in Zywicki’s university profile, CV, byline or congressional testimony is the law professor’s other job: he is a director of the Global Economics Group, a consulting business that boasts in a brochure that its experts have been hired by industry to influence the CFPB and other regulatory agencies. Nor does Zywicki advertise Global’s client list, which includes some of the biggest names in the financial industry, among them Visa, Bank of America and Citigroup.
Last summer, Zywicki’s firm was retained for $500 an hour on behalf of Morgan Drexen, a debt-relief company accused by the CFPB of deceiving consumers and charging illegal upfront fees. None of these potential conflicts of interest, however, have been disclosed during the course of Zywicki’s anti-CFPB advocacy in the media or in government.
After the financial industry lost the battle to defeat Dodd-Frank, it moved quickly to minimize the law’s impact during the long slog of implementation [see Gary Rivlin, “How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank,” May 20]. Academics like Zywicki have played a key role in this process. As Wall Street firms seek to beat back hundreds of rules still under consideration, sponsored scholars have been at the front lines of obstructing reform…
Several of the anti–Volcker Rule academics providing comments to regulators, such as Harvard Law School professor Hal Scott, have been paid by investment banks seeking to block the rule. A nonprofit financed by Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other investment banks has paid Scott nearly $1.3 million in compensation since 2007, as Reuters reported in 2010. Separately, Scott has received more than $1.7 million in cash and stock from Lazard since 2006, when he was elected to the company’s board. Scott’s submissions to regulators neglect to mention these payments and other consulting jobs, including one for State Street Corporation, that may color the professor’s outlook.
“If someone is commenting on a regulation,” says the Sunlight Foundation’s Bill Allison, “there’s no requirement for disclosure.”
The same problem exists with congressional testimony thanks to an ethics procedure change by House Republicans in 2011, which removed a requirement that those giving expert testimony reveal their private sector ties. So-called “Truth in Testimony” forms now ask only if an expert witness has received earmarks or government grants, allowing many Wall Street–sponsored professors to assume the guise of academic neutrality. Jeff Connaughton, who worked on financial reform as the chief of staff to then-Senator Ted Kaufman, says that professors receiving undisclosed payments has become a significant issue. “Academics are hired guns like anyone else,” he says….
piratedan
so many heads, so few pikes……
MattR
@piratedan: I always hear complaints that America doesn’t actually manufacture anything anymore. I think these guys are just trying to create a thriving pike-making business because they love America so much.
WereBear
Science is not a plaything for ideological badminton.
Walker
That is a conflict of interest no-no. Every year my university forces me to fill out paperwork demonstrating that I am NOT doing this.
MikeJ
Gunsel doesn’t mean gunman. Its closest synonym is “faggot”.
piratedan
@MattR: hmmmm, sounds like a kickstarter possibility there, because I’m guessing that the banksters wouldn’t want me making a profit with their imminent demise regarding their routine screwing over of the public. Then again, I’m white and middle aged, they probably wouldn’t notice.
sparrow
ugh, surprise surprise that the “moral majority” changes ethics rules so they can be extra slimy. Find me a pike already.
Arrik
What a surprise: he’s at George Mason.
sparrow
@Arrik: Is George Mason known for being conservative? I have a scientist friend who is a professor there, and I just figured it was a run of the mill low-ranked high-cost school for those with money.
Jamey
God, the BALLS on these people!
JoyfulA
Zywicki is a senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason. It’s a libertarian waspnest. Washington listens to him, we’ll wind up on the gold standard.
Dolly Llama
@Walker: Same here. WTF?
ruviana
@sparrow: It’s generally a solid comprehensive state university but the Mercatus Center is a right-funded “law and economics/laissez-faire project on the campus. Not unlike Hoover at Stanford.
Omnes Omnibus
@sparrow: George Mason is a state school. A number of years ago, it decided to make its Econ Dept be famous so it went out and brought in every libertarian economist it could find. Suddenly, it had a reputation. It then went for law and econ types at the law school.
ETA: The one person I know who went there is a right wing Christianist loon, but that is anecdote not data.
Seanly
When can we haz revolution so we can line up some of these folks against the wall? My list of people deserving that gets longer & longer each day.
ruviana
Aaand while I was typing JoyfulA was posting. Still true. I actually wanted to say that the shill I love to hate is Peter Morici, a real professor at a well-regarded university. The first tip-off is the bow-tie. Peter can sometimes be seen pitching photocopiers in Kyocera commercials. Ick!
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
To be fair, Dashiell Hammett chose that word specifically because he knew it would sneak past the censors, who would hear the word “gun” in it and assume it was gangster-related. So it’s a mistake people have been making for 70+ years.
RSA
Oh, great. I’m an academic. I think I know how an honest banker must feel.
It strikes me, though, that the main culprits seem to be in law, economics, and political science.
Mudge
As soon as I clicked the link and saw George Mason University it all became clearer. That entire economics department, if not the whole university, are in the right wing money machine’s pocket.
Rex Everything
“Gunsel.” Nice. You’re not in Romeville now.
Litlebritdiftrnt
OT but can I just butt in here and say that anyone asking for Tort Reform as a part of helping with Health Care reform can just go fuck themselves. Here in NC we have Rule 9j, which basically says before you can even file a medical malpractice lawsuit you have to hire an expert witness (at a cost of thousands of dollars) who will absolutely certify that the care received was below the normal standard. In recent years the NC appeals court and supreme court has narrowed the “expert” qualifications to mean that the “expert” must not only be an expert in his field but he must practice within a 50 mile radius of where the lawsuit is filed. That basically means you have to get a doctor who practices in the same town as all of his pals to testify against him. Yeah good luck with that.
Also too, I keep hearing the republican talking heads talking about Health Savings Accounts, tell me, how much can a person making minimum wage put into a health savings account a week? And how will $10.55 pay for a $15,000 emergency room bill? Please explain this to me.
Also too, Flossie likes Pomegranate. Who knows.
Ignore me.
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
Though Anne Laurie seems to have used it correctly since she’s coupling “gunsels” with “sex workers.” (No pun intended.) IIRC, the meaning is more like “rent boy.”
Yatsuno
@Mnemosyne: So it is referring to, well, me. I was kinda hoping for the bundle of sticks definition. No one uses it for that anymore you notice.
Mudge
@Mnemosyne: Elisha Cook
Mnemosyne
@Yatsuno:
Sort of. As I said, it’s more “rent boy” than just any ol’ gay man walking around. Unless you have a Rupert Everett-like private life you haven’t been sharing with us, I think you’re in the clear as far as “gunsel” goes. ;-)
handsmile
@Mnemosyne:
Or “catamite.”
And it’s the sound of the cosmos laughing, that this guy was J. Edgar Hoover’s administrative assistant:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Gunsel
Mnemosyne
@Mudge:
Puts a whole new light on that movie now that you know what the word really means, doesn’t it? IIRC, John Huston knew the correct meaning, so those scenes have an extra layer when you know to look for it.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, for those who didn’t know about Rupert Everett’s past employment (which he has been extremely open about).
Yatsuno
@Mnemosyne:
A lady never kisses and tells. Though there is the possibility that a fictional 93 year old lady who FPs on this blog may have some insight on that.
burnspbesq
George Mason Law? Mercatus Center?
OK, that tells me everything I need to know.
If this guy tells you the sun rises in the east, get up early and check for yourself. He is not to be trusted.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yatsuno: You were SP&T’s toy boy?
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
Zywicki now knows exactly what it takes to buy him. He can probably quote what he’d take to have his wife ass fucked by a dozen syphilitic midgets.
Yatsuno
@Omnes Omnibus: Still not kissing and telling. :P
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne:
The best reason to avoid using it improperly is that annoying people like me will show up and half the thread will be about “gunsel” instead of whatever was in the post after the first sentence.
Gravenstone
@ruviana: Hey now, not all professors who wear bow ties are hacks. In my experience, most are either physical chemists or physicists.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ:
Your “gunsel” is my “decimated.”
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: You are a purist on the 10%?
fuckwit
Where can I go long on tumbrel futures?
Omnes Omnibus
@fuckwit: Send the money to me, I’ll take care of it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, ‘fraid so.
Southern Beale
I had a lunch with my FA today, which is always depressing but he told me the credit bubble is back and it’s worse than 2007-2008, this time it’s not mortgages but corporate lending, companies are borrowing money from private capital sources and just holding onto it, and these loans are being packaged into exotic devices too, it’s the whole same crazy crap as before and it’s global. And he also said other countries are trying to get away from the US Dollar as a reserve currency especially with our politics being as crazy as it is right now and if that happens then the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
He says to invest in non-US dollar backed stuff, like ETFs in foreign currencies.
Then I came home and attended a neighborhood meeting and got yelled at by the head of Metro Nashville Planning Dept.
So that was my day.
raven
@efgoldman: Senator Paul Simon
Kay
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
This is “Dr. Hotspot” he’s a physician in Camden NJ who has a clinic and discovered that 10% of poor people use 80% of the medical care. He has a whole elaborate plan at the clinic built around this discovery. The idea is we will spend less on health care if we give better quality primary care.
He’s all the rage in public health (it really is a pretty amazing thing he’s done in Camden) and he spoke to the governors conference in DC. I saw it on CSPAN.
So he throws it open to the governors after he explains the theory and each wingnut governor is repeating “tort reform” – doctor is getting slightly annoyed and finally he cuts off the governor of Arizona and tells her “tort reform doesn’t help with costs, we tried it in Texas, doesn’t work”
She looked crushed.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My French professor wore a bow tie.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Mnemosyne: Fuck me. I learned something tonight.
chopper
in econ, yes. in science, not so much.
BBA
Zywicki, a blogger at Volokh Conspiracy, was a major force behind the 2005 bankruptcy law, which made the process much more difficult and bank-friendly shortly before a lot more people found themselves in need of it. At the time Warren was a blogger at Credit Slips, one of the leading bankruptcy law blogs, and she and her fellow contributors were harshly critical of the law. Perhaps he still harbors a grudge from the blogosphere.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Nope. None. The French prof taught an awesome course on Francophone African literature though.
schrodinger's cat
Have you guys seen the Inside Job? This Z fella is not the only one with major conflicts of interest, not to speak of the ideological blinders common to many academics in finance and economics.
My review here.
raven
@efgoldman: Yep. (That pic last night was, indeed. yours truly.)
Petorado
What pisses me off about Zywicki, among other things, is that he is selling the esteem of a public institution as his calling card for authority on economic issues, and then he turns around and stabs the public interest in the back for any paying suitor. He’s out there getting all “moochers and looters” under the media lights when he is essentially a parasite devouring its own host. If only there was a natural law that made people’s heads explode when they become this hypocritical.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: @Omnes Omnibus: Shit. I stand corrected. My commercial transactions prof was bow tied.
ETA: I liked the French courses and prof better than the commercial transactions course and prof.
ruviana
@Gravenstone: Ha!
catclub
@Petorado: I was behind a pickup truck with a zillion Ron Paul stickers.
The one I want to add: “Yes, I am a government employee!” (I am virtually certain, given the location.)
catclub
@Kay: Isn’t it even worse than 10% need 80%? A few people cost millions – and just getting them housing and regular meds can make all the difference.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: Was the driver a dead ringer for Dale Gribble? In my experience, they usually are.
srv
The great Dick Cheney on Charlie Rose, looks Fabulous as Charlie says.
Medical science has restored his arteries to a youthful 20-something. We are so blessed this great leader will be with us for a long time to come.
David Koch
@catclub:
I didn’t know Griftwald drove a pickup
Ruckus
@Kay:
I like the idea of tort reform as a cost control. Never mind that better preventive care and maybe rethinking letting Dr work 48 hr straight(and yes I know of a trauma surgeon who still does this, it’s his regular schedule) just might give better results. Never mind that the money has already been spent. Never mind that you have to win the suit or get the Dr’s ins co to settle which of course takes yrs. Never mind that if you are bankrupt or broke it’s going to be pretty hard to get any kind of competent/ethical lawyer to take the case without a rather large retainer. Never mind that it doesn’t work to lower costs, conservatives just have to keep flogging that dead horse.
goblue72
GMU (and esp GMU – Mercatus) isn’t a real school. Its a third-tier state school that the Koch Bros. essentially bought to serve as a university-front group for their far-right, John Birch society vomit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center
xenos
Zywicki was my prof for bankruptcy, as he was doing a visiting professorship that term at my law school. FWIW, he was a very good prof, and explained how law and economics worked without preaching or being dishonest about other analytical approaches.
It was obvious he was full of shit. It was obvious that he knew it. This was at the time the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Act was being readied for another attempt at being passed, although it took a few more years until it succeeded. The whole idea of the Act, per Z, was that everybody’s interest rates on loans would go down significantly due to the reduction in frivolous and dishonest bankruptcies. As an empirical level this has been completely disproved, as interest rates went up as banks had more power to enforce usorious rates on their customers.
Of course, Zywicki has never acknowleged this fact. I even stalke/trolled him a bit on Volokh.com to see if he would admit that the main justification for the act had been proven false. At one point I just begged him to to tell me if there was any empirical test of these claims that could be made, and to let us proles know what that test could possibly be. At that point he ceased responding.
I must drive non-lawyers bonkers to see the sort of brazen intellectual dishonesty that is is rewarded so thoroughly in the legal education racket.
xenos
@Southern Beale: The Euro seems to be stuck at a high exchange rate with the dollar, and Merkel is boxed politically and can’t back a significant quantitative easing even if she now knows it is necessary. While this implies the Euro-based funds are a safe haven, watch out for an exchange-rate bubble as a weakening US economy makes euros the safes place to park funds. You may very well catch a dramatic upside, but being a bubble, it could pop on you.
Like in the US markets, there are very big whales splashing around the pool, and minnows can get stranded easily.
may
Zywicki is a Dartmouth ’88 where he was a Government major like so many of the 80’s Reagan Era conservatives cultivated at Dartmouth who went on to do so much damage in the world. He also was the President of Libertarians at Dartmouth and, interestingly, he wrote for the Dartmouth not the Dartmouth Review. Same class as Kirsten Gillibrand, but she was not political then. Hart and Buckley did a lot harm spreading their campus conservatism in the 80’s.