U.S. Rep. Brad Miller is still feeling a little defensive about a ribbing he took two years ago.

In a guest post on the liberal TPM Cafe Web site, the Raleigh Democrat writes that "people laughed" at him when he argued in 2007 that innovation in the financial sector can be a bad thing.

During an off-the-cuff floor speech about predatory lending, Miller compared loans unfavorably to a stain-resistant silk necktie he was wearing, saying the tie was an "important innovation." He was mocked for the metaphor by a Capitol Hill paper.

"Serious economists are now arguing that we should not reflexively celebrate 'innovation' in the financial sector as we do innovation in the real economy," he writes. "I was ahead of my time. I said the same thing almost two years ago, and people laughed at me."

He noted that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, economist James Kwak and Harvard law profess Elizabeth Warren have made similar arguments in recent months, with Warren saying the government should regulate financial instruments just like toasters.

"So why did my comparison of a mortgage and a necktie provoke snickering, and Elizabeth Warren's comparison of a mortgage and a toaster was seen as serious, scholarly insight?" he wrote.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper told two of the state's congressional delegation this week that he wants them to remove language in their predatory lending bill that would preempt state law.

"The proposed new law (in Congress) has significant problems in the area of remedies and enforcement," Cooper wrote Miller and Watt on Thursday, Barb Barrett reports.

The bill, H.R. 1728, the "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act," has the goal of ensuring that borrowers can afford to pay back their loans they take out.

It was introduced by U.S. Reps. Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mel Watt of Charlotte, both Democrats.

Cooper wrote that the bill would pre-empt protections in North Carolina, which is considered one of the strongest state laws in the country. Consumer advocacy groups also question the preemption clause in the bill.

More after the jump.

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Roy Cooper says state banking laws should be allowed to work.

In a friend of the court brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the North Carolina attorney general joined his colleagues from 48 other states to argue that federal laws should not override state consumer protection efforts.

In Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, the justices are considering whether New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo can enforce fair lending laws against national banks who gave subprime loans.

"Right now, we need all hands on deck to protect consumers from bad loans," Cooper said in a statement. "Irresponsible lending helped get us into this economic mess, and these times call for more oversight and enforcement of tough consumer protection laws, not less."

In the brief, Cooper and the other attorneys general argue that states have "a long track record of consumer protection enforcement" in cases involving national banks and says barring them from those efforts would be "short-sighted."

He specifically cites North Carolina's 1999 anti-predatory lending law, which he sponsored as a state senator, as an example of state efforts that went beyond the federal government's.

Gov. Mike Easley is discussing foreclosure, education and the law this week.

According to a schedule provided by the governor's office today, Easley had several stops in Washington after going to an economic summit with President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia Tuesday.

During a three-hour stopover, he was interviewed by BBC America about the summit, met with state and federal education experts interested in the state's Learn and Earn and 21st Century Skills programs and met with 20 of his colleagues at the Democratic Governors Association.

Easley, a former North Carolina attorney general, is meeting today and tomorrow with the National Association of Attorneys General conference in Florida about the state's predatory lending laws and home foreclosure reduction laws, which other states are considering as a model.

He will make a formal speech in the morning.

"The National Association of Attorneys General winter conference is an all business, non-press event, which is why they asked the Governor not to publicize his speech," wrote spokeswoman Renee Hoffman in an e-mail to Dome.

She added that Easley reimburses the state for any trips "of a political nature."

Previously: Why is Easley stopping in D.C., Florida?

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was very bipartisan in the 2005-06 session.

With the candidates for Senate touting their records of bipartisanship, Dome has been taking a closer look at the number of Democrats who signed on to legislation Dole sponsored.

In the 2005-06 session, the Salisbury Republican was the primary sponsor of 49 bills. Of them, 30 had no cosponsor, nine had only Republican cosponsors and nine had Democratic cosponsors.

Overall, her 63 cosponsors included 29 Democrats and 34 Republicans, or about a one-to-one ratio. (Dome is counting Sen. Jim Jeffords, an Independent, as a Democrat since he caucused with them.)

The most frequent Democratic cosponsor was Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who signed on to four Dole amendments, including a measure to require the National Academy of Sciences study drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune.

Dole also had Democratic cosponsors on bills requiring a report on predatory lending to military families, assist worker retraining programs, encourage collectively bargained retiree health benefits, honoring a black Marine and giving a tax credit for hunger relief efforts.

Previously: Dole's Democratic cosponsors in 2007-08 session.

Attorney General Roy Cooper is continuing his fight against predatory lending.

But this time, he's targeting the U.S. Congress instead of the lenders, Titan Barksdale reports.

Cooper announced today that a bill pending in the U.S. Senate would undercut a similar state law that strengthens protections for North Carolina homeowners against predatory lenders.

He's calling on Congress to strengthen the bill and eliminate any provisions that preempt North Carolina's predatory lending laws.

U.S. Reps. Brad Miller and Mel Watt and others co-sponsored the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act to address the amount of homes lost to foreclosures. The bill, which has passed the U.S. House, prohibits lenders from pushing borrowers into loans they can't afford.

In a letter to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Cooper writes that the bill contains provisions that eliminate some rights homeowners have under state law.

Mortgage brokers back the bill saying it offers adequate consumer protection, and standardizes lending laws.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has been blacklisted, but it's really more like black humor.

His name was published on a the Web site for the Predatory Lending Association, a bogus trade group that poses as a resource for payday lenders, Titan Barksdale reports.

The Web site, however, lampoons predatory lending, and credits Cooper for ridding North Carolina of major payday lenders. Cooper has taken an aggressive stance against payday lenders in North Carolina suing and prosecuting them.

"Mr. Cooper claims to 'bust scams that prey on unsuspecting people,' but his anti-competitive policies have busted our profits from predatory lending," the Web site says.

The site lists Cooper and several opponents of predatory lending such as Martin Eakes, founder of the Center for Responsible Lending. Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, called the blacklisting of Cooper "hilarious."

The Kansas City Star published a story on the Web site this week, which was created by a Topeka native and former Microsoft employee.

BusinessWeek says North Carolina's predatory lending laws are "shaping the debate" in Washington, D.C.

In an article this week, the national business magazine says the state's 1999 predatory lending law and several updates are a model for proposals now making their way through Congress. In addition, more than half of states now have some version of the law.

"North Carolina was at the vanguard," says housing expert Kathleen C. Engel.

Critics of the law argued that it would hurt the real estate market, but academic studies found no effect. Foreclosure filings rose less than the national rate this year, and median home prices went up in Charlotte and Raleigh, despite a national downturn.

The piece quotes Attorney General Roy Cooper, who sponsored the law as a state senator.

"The bottom line is that [the regulations are] working," he said. "North Carolina has strong banks that are tough but fair, and there's plenty of available credit."

Democratic U.S. Reps. Mel Watt of Charlotte and Brad Miller of Raleigh introduced legislation today aimed at protecting consumers against predatory home mortgages.

It requires mortgage brokers and bank loan officers to be licensed, requires borrowers to have a reasonabile ability to repay a loan and prohibits brokers from earning more money by steering borrowers into higher-risk loans, reports Barb Barrett.

The bill, an update from similar legislation they filed in 2005, is based largely on North Carolina’s subprime mortgage lending law, often considered among the most stringent in the nation. The Miller/Watt bill also sets standards for prime mortgage lending, Watt said.

“I think it’s been demonstrated it’s needed over the last several years,” said Watt. “Some of the practices that were taking place in the subprime and prime markets just have kind of gotten out of hand.”

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Gov. Mike Easley signed three bills today that will strengthen a 1999 law on subprime mortgages.

In a brief ceremony, the governor said the changes would help protect home buyers with poor credit from taking out loans that they can't afford by restricting some tactics used by lenders.

"To put it in plain talk, they've come up with new ways to trick people," he said.

One bill would extend state courts' jurisdiction over out-of-state lenders. A second would give the Banking Commissioner more leeway to void predatory loans. A third would give renters notice when a property is being foreclosed on.

Other measures would restrict lenders from charging home buyers a higher interest rate than they qualify for and restrict loans with low introductory rates that quickly jump.

Recent news of high default rates on subprime loans has shaken financial markets as far as Japan.

"If you've ever doubted whether regulation is important ... I think that recent events have put that to rest," Easley said.