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The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is set to begin regulating July 21st, but its purpose and de facto leader Elizabeth Warren are under attack. The CFPB was conceived by Warren and established under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. Warren argues that consumers deserve at least as much protection from deceptive banking and lending practices as they do from purchasing a faulty toaster. The new agency will regulate loans, including those made by banks, pay day lenders, and student loan agencies. For the past year the banking and lending industry has spent millions lobbying members of Congress to weaken the Bureau and refuse Warren an appointment as Director. Some see the Bureau as a logical response to fraudulent and harmful lending practices that contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown. However others, like Republican Representative Jeb Hensling are predicting an avalanche of stifling regulation, calling the Bureau “one of the greatest assaults on economic liberty in [his] lifetime.” A Warren nomination for director of the Bureau is opposed by the GOP and members of President Obama’s own cabinet. As the CFPB’s grand opening day looms, Warren’s supporters in and out of Congress are pushing the President to make a recess appointment. Nation magazine contributor Ari Berman recently published an article on the battle over the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and joins me on the phone.

GUEST: Ari Berman, is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute.