The big news today is that President Barack Obama is proposing sweeping changes to the regulatory system that oversees our financial products and services industry. In addition to expanding the scope of some of the Federal Reserve’s powers to regulate large firms, Obama suggests that a consumer protection agency be created. One of the issues that such a consumer protection agency will oversee is that of home mortgage loans .
The main idea is to have mortgage lenders first offer traditional mortgages to borrowers, and help them find the mortgage that would best fit their situations . The Wall Street Journal …read more

This week (March 1-7)  is National Consumer Protection Week. A great deal of emphasis is being placed on improving your protections. If you want to learn more about becoming a better informed consumer, consider the Consumer Action Handbook, available for free from the Federal Trade Commission. You can learn more about consumer rights, how to protect yourself and get useful pointers on filing complaints and avoiding identity theft.
In honor of National Consumer Protection Week, I would like to offer 7 ways you can protect yourself as a consumer:

Keep your personal information quiet. If you didn’t call a company for a …read more