The Case Against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Writing at City Journal, Nicole Gelinas makes the case against the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the “consumer watchdog” formed in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. According to Gelinas, the bureau is “useless in some ways and deeply harmful in others.” She writes:
Some abuses that it was designed to curb have already been handled by existing federal agencies, while others are beyond its power to fix. The agency is equally incapable of remedying the worst ailment facing the American financial “consumer”: crushing debt, much of it purveyed by the federal government. Yet at the same time, Congress has given the CFPB the formidable power of banning abusive, unfair, deceptive, or discriminatory financial practices relating to Americans’ everyday financial interactions. Though that may sound appealing, remember how the government, by trying to do essentially the same thing with mortgages, lured poorer people into financial contracts that they couldn’t afford. The CFPB may do for credit cards and other financial products what the government did for mortgages: make the poor think that borrowing lots of money is perfectly reasonable. The CFPB, in sum, is Washington’s new weapon in its war for more debt.
Read the rest here.
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Useless and deeply harmful. Isn't that our government's slogan?
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What's that in Latin, anyway? E pluribus something?
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A pointless organization that introduces instability into the financial system?
Thank you Lizzie Warren!
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Encourage more debt by those least able to repay, then use the vague, incomprehensible rules of that same body to blame the lenders for predatory behavior.
What a racket.
And why am I getting a laser hair removal ad on the sidebar? Is Reason trying to tell me something?
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Encourage more debt by those least able to repay, then use the vague, incomprehensible rules of that same body to blame the lenders for predatory behavior.
Then use taxpayer dollars to bail out the stupidest (smartest?) borrowers.
It's another means of under-the-radar wealth redistribution. Blaming the lenders is just part of the distraction.
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"The Case Against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"
Simple.
It'll do the opposite of 'protecting' consumers.
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SOunds kinda crazy dude.