“By building walls, you separate yourself from the world”
If you’ve been following the Presidential pre-election campaign, you have probably heard (or read) about Donald Trump’s immigration solution: to build a wall to separate Mexico from the United States. In his first town hall meeting, he mentioned that the famous Great Wall of China took 500 years to build. (There is evidence that it was actually built during the Ming dynasty over a period of around 200 years.) Now it only serves as a tourist attraction. Then there was the Berlin Wall, which was erected in 1961 and demolished 28 years later, whose purpose was to protect Socialism from Capitalism or the reverse. Hungary is trying to build a fence to protect itself and the rest of Western Europe from the insurgents from the Middle East and Africa. When Israel started to build a wall to protect itself from bombs and terrorists, many people from the Western World were opposed. Meanwhile, we do not hear about protests against the fence in Hungary. The question is: “How can we be protected?” I’m actually thinking about this while sitting at an educational seminar. In addition to needing a real estate license, which requires renewal every four years, mortgage professionals need to have NMLS (Nationwide Mortgage and Licensing System) endorsements, which need to be renewed every year. This year, the subject is the newly Integrated Disclosure called “TRID”, which is due to be implemented on Saturday, October 3rd. It is the brainchild of the CFPB (The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).
The purpose of the new disclosure is to offer consumers better protection. The question is from whom and if consumers need more protection than they already have? In my very humble opinion, they do not. For sure, as well as anyone involved in the mortgage industry, they definitely do not need more headaches trying to go through a confusing 50 page brochure, which tells them to shop for a loan, when there are only 21 days to the close of the purchase transaction. The CFPB was created as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. At the beginning, the agency had an unlimited Federal Budget. Now they primarily exist from the millions of dollars they collect by suing banks for the violation of the CFPB set rules. More complex rules (like new disclosures) will lead to more violations, and more revenue for CFPB.
During the last presidential election campaign, Mitt Romney was promising to get rid of the Dodd-Frank Act. This did not happen 3 years ago. Let’s see what will happen in 2016.
I don’t know anything about why there would be a need for a wall to separate USA from Mexico, but I know something about mortgages and I care about everyone’s well being and protecting borrowers. Sooner or later, walls come down or become obsolete. How soon will the CFPB disappear? I do not know. For the benefits of my clients, I hope soon. Please read the article in the SF Chronicle – “New mortgage rules streamline paperwork but may cause snags in SF“
P.S. Walls can serve other purposes as well. When the Berlin Wall came down, one section of it, in the middle of the city, was preserved, and today it serves as a canvas for the graffiti artists to express themselves. We have enough of our own walls on which graffiti artists and muralists create their own masterpieces.
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