The Cambridge Winter Center, a financial research institute headed by Raj Date, has been tracking lobbyists on the Hill who are seeking to exempt auto loans form the authority of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These lobbyists are claiming that their industry doesn't need government attention because auto loans have not become more likely to fail during the sub-prime bubble. While that is not necessarily a relevant argument about whether they should be regulated, Date's team has taken data and a chart provided by these lobbyists to prove their argument wrong. Watch:
It shows how careful you need to be about data. It also shows that industries will say anything to avoid public scrutiny of their business practices and ethics.
-- Tim Fernholz
