Mar 11, 2010

"Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) on Thursday talked openly of the bipartisan compromise he nearly reached with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) over new financial regulations.

On consumer protection:

'I think the consumer title that Chairman Dodd puts forth will be very much shaped by our discussions. My guess is he’ll probably veer it to a hair left to be candid…but hopefully not. But where it was left, it was housed at the Fed, appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate.'

'One of the things about the Fed, and since I can come real clean now…the thing about the Fed if you remember the President said that he wanted an independent source of funding. The way the Fed works, the Fed gives whatever surplus is left to the Treasury each year, and that was a way of solving that problem because in essence the consumer protection agency would have an independent source of funding.'"

Click to go to the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog and view the entire post.