The evolution of the consumer movement: The rise of consumer financial protection

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12323
• Author: Richard Cordray
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Published date: 01 December 2020

COLSTON WARNE LECTURE

The evolution of the consumer movement: The

rise of consumer financial protection

Richard Cordray†

Grove City, Ohio

Correspondence

Richard Cordray, 4900 Grove City Road, Grove City, OH 43123.

Email: raccordray@gmail.com

Thank you for inviting me to this year's conference. I especially thank you for singling me out

to deliver the Colston Warne Lecture. For well over a century, the consumer movement in

America and around the world has given rise to many leading figures, whose courage and inge-

nuity set inspiring examples for us all. I encountered such a figure several years ago when I was

asked to deliver the Ruby Hutchison Memorial Lecture for World Consumer Rights Day in Syd-

ney, Australia.

1

As it turned out, Mrs. Hutchison was working to advance consumer interests in

her country at the same time Colston Warne was a prominent leader of the U.S. consumer

movement. Plain-spoken in the best traditions of consumer advocacy, she founded the

Australian Consumer Association because, as she said, “I know how the housewives of Western

Australia are being robbed.”

2

She also started CHOICE magazine, which was intended to see

consumers informed about their rights and about products, their value and safety. In April

1960, the first edition of the magazine was sent to an inaugural readership of 500 people; by the

end of the decade, it had over 100,000 subscribers. It continues to thrive to this day.

3

Some of you in ACCI know quite a bit about Colston Warne, but for me the invitation to

deliver this lecture led to yet another voyage of discovery. He was, of course, one of the founders

of Consumers Union and a notable economics professor. It seems clear to me that Dr. Warne

and Mrs. Hutchison would have known something about one another, since he was the Presi-

dent of the International Association of Consumers Unions (IOCU) from 1960 to 1970, during

the period when her new group was on the rise, and there is documentation that Consumers

Union was directly supportive in helping the ACA get underway. In his account of the interna-

tional consumer movement, Dr. Warne focuses briefly on Australia, describing CHOICE maga-

zine as a “vigorous”publication, discussing the growth of her ACA, and noting its “very close

linkage”with his own IOCU (though he never mentions Mrs. Hutchison by name).

4

†

Former and founding director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; author of Watchdog: How Protecting

Consumers Can Save Our Families, Our Economy, and Our Democracy (New York: Oxford Univ. Press 2020)

ACCI Conference 2020: Colston Warne Lecture May 20, 2020

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12323

© 2020 American Council on Consumer Interests

J Consum Aff. 2020;54:1375–1382. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 1375