Cohan Report: Do bank profits depend on consumer ignorance?

Banks are balking at President Barack Obama's plan to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). They argue that the CFPA will raise costs to consumers. Even as they relish the chance to remain in business thanks to our government's $12.8 trillion to bail them out, they fear an agency that would force them to compete honestly for consumer finance business.

Not only do banks depend on taxpayers for their bailout, but 70 percent of overall economic growth springs from consumer spending. Yet banks are eager to keep biting the hand that feeds them their bonuses after they destroyed the global financial system -- by retaining the right to profit from consumer ignorance.