The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Dishonest War Against Consumers

My Portfolio.com column, the Weiss File, explores the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's dishonest campaign against the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The column can be found here.

What makes the Chamber’s opposition especially potent—and disagreeable— is that it is purporting to represent the interests of small business. In September, the Chamber launched an ad campaign. One newspaper ad said, "Virtually every business that extends credit to American consumers would be affected—even the local butcher and the credit he extends to his customers."

The word credit is especially effective and evocative, because small businesses, like the consumers they serve, are among the hardest hit by the continual tight credit market. But the Chamber doesn’t want to do anything about that—such as by requiring that recipients of TARP funding make loans to creditworthy small businesses and consumers.

By the way, when was the last time you heard of a butcher extending credit to a customer? Mr. Glucksman, my family's butcher on Kingsbridge Road, used to do that--forty years ago. What bunk.

By the way, here is where Glucksman Brothers used to be, from James Shannon's terrific website. Sad.

© 2010 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.