A UNC-Chapel Hill professor may oversee consumer product safety.

President Obama has nominated Robert S. Adler, a professor of legal studies and ethics at UNC, to be commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Adler's research and teaching focus on consumer protection, product liability, ethics, regulation and negotiation.

Before joining the UNC faculty, Adler served as counsel on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, adgvising on legislative and oversight issues relating to the commission and as an attorney-advisor to two commissioners.

He has been elected six times to the board of directors of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

He also served on the presidential transition team.

Hat Tip: David Ingram 

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller wants to centralize lending oversight.

The Raleigh Democrat has co-sponsored a bill that would create a new Financial Product Safety Commission that would enforce consumer protection, evaluate lending practices, coordinate enforcement with state and federal regulators and issue public reports.

Currently, at least 10 different federal agencies have responsibility for loans and other consumer financial products. The new agency's name mimics the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent government agency that regulates safety of consumer products.

"Our economy is in a deep hole dug by the financial industry," Miller said in a statement. "For years they defended every consumer lending practice, regardless of how predatory the practice appeared on its face, as necessary to make credit available to ordinary Americans."

Miller played a key role in bankrupty reforms being considered by the Senate. He is working with Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts and Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts on this bill.

The bill has been endorsed by over 55 national and state organizations, including labor unions, civil rights groups and consumer protection advocates such as the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham.