Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been squabbling about whether the new financial consumer protection agency should be housed within the Federal Reserve or as part of an independent body. The watchdog, wherever it ends up, is the linchpin of the emerging financial reform bill, and its premise is that greedy bankers exploiting dumb consumers essentially caused the credit crisis. Stop bankers from selling toxic mortgages and other harmful loans, goes the theory, and we won't have any more meltdowns.
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