A new proposed rule that would ever so slightly curb the excesses of the payday loan industry is an exciting thing: the government, which represents us, acting against awful exploitative money vampires. The system works, a little bit!

Most of the big banks have kept quiet after President Obama controversially recess-appointed Richard Cordray to his throne atop Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We still don't know how much this new bureaucracy will annoy the banks, but one can assume they were just fine with the previous arrangement, in which congressional procedural gimmicks were used to block it from ever taking formation. But then yesterday, something wonderful happened: Citigroup's lobbyist chimed in with a passive-aggressive blog post about the whole issue!

No surprise here. Top Republicans are ripping President Obama's decision to recess appoint his top consumer watchdog, Richard Cordray.

President Obama broke some news this weekend, while he and the fam were watching ladies' soccer games. He chose to nominate Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was created in last year's Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. But the interesting thing about this Cordray fellow is that his name isn't "Elizabeth Warren." What gives?