The Federal Trade Commission faces a “mortal threat” from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, former Federal Trade Commission chairman Timothy Muris said during a panel discussion today. He suggested that agency leaders selectively criticize the rival agency publicly and privately.

“I fear for the FTC,” said Muris, chairman of the agency from 2001 to 2004 and now of counsel to Kirkland & Ellis and a professor at George Mason University School of Law.