The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sprung into action pretty decently since Richard Cordray was installed as director. CFPB has presented new, simple-to-read mortgage forms, and submitted a plan to regulate debt collection agencies and credit reporting bureaus. Today Cordray is in New York to discuss overdraft fees, a particularly egregious money-making scheme for banks and he’s inviting consumer feedback.

In his statement on the Administration’s new housing policies, CFPB Director Richard Cordray makes a fairly stunning response, considering it’s posted at the White House blog: “Documents were falsified,” which means criminal fraud. That raises concerns about how broad is the release from criminal liability contained in the proposed settlement.

We may be getting close to a settlement betweent some state AGs and the mortgage bankers on foreclosure and related mortgage practices. Late on Friday I spoke with Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the IMF and a professor at MIT, who also writes the Baseline Scenario blog with James Kwak. Johnson has been skeptical of the foreclosure fraud settlement.

The last time Patrick McHenry, the Billy Zabka of the House Republican caucus, held a hearing with a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it didn’t turn out too well. He called Elizabeth Warren a liar and generally tried to bully her, and received quite a backlash in the process.

The House Republican position on President Obama’s recess appointments is hard to even express without laughing. GOP Congressmembers are actually saying that they oppose the appointments because Congress is not in recess – and as soon as they finish their vacation and get back to Washington, they’ll have something to say about that.

NYT reporter Louise Story reports on a new investigation in New York of big banks and their mortgage practices. This one is not being run by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, though he reserves the right to get involved. Instead, the New York Department of Financial Services is investigating the banks on the issue of forced-place mortgage insurance, one of the biggest bank scams going.

The CFPB has worked to bring clarity to mortgage, student loan and credit card statements with their “Know Before You Owe” program. But with the appointment of Cordray, now they get the full regulatory authorities of the agency.

The President is making a distinction between nominees who the various agencies can do without for a spell and nominees whose seating is crucial to the functioning of the agency.

The White House announced its lawyers view the President’s power to make recess appointments to be unfettered by GOP pro forma efforts to keep the Senate in session merely to obstruct the power to make appointments. This means the President may soon make other recess appointments, including to the National Labor Relations Board, which currently cannot operate because it lacks of quorum.

The President will make a recess appointment today for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opening up the bureau to regulate non-bank financial institutions and giving the new agency its first leader. This is a bold move by the President, and to put it in context, it’s important to understand it follows massive obstruction by GOP Senators.