Consumer Financial 'Protection' Bureau Hoovers, Stores and Shares Your Information

Reason

There's a reason why "we're from the government and we're here to help you" has become a cynical joke, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a big part of the punch line. Supposedly established "to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans," the CFPB apparently interprets its mission the way every other government agency interprets its mission: as a carte blanche to build massive databases and wield the stored information as a key to power. The CFPB uses its authority to force American businesses to surrender data on their customers, which is then compiled and shared with the bureau's very special friends.

From Investors Business Daily:

Big Brother is watching you — in even more ways than previously known. It turns out the National Security Agency and Internal Revenue Service aren't the only federal agencies gathering sensitive information about you.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform, is collecting reams of data on your bill-paying and spending habits.

In fact, the Obama administration is compiling a massive database of personal information, including monthly credit card, mortgage, car and other payments.

The data will be warehoused by private contractors and shared with other federal agencies and Congress, as well as researchers in the field.

You can trust the CFPB to be careful with all of that sensitive information, right? Except … Except, "CFPB's own inspector general recently cited 'weaknesses' in its security program. His findings were corroborated by a Government Accountability Office report that expressed concerns about CFPB's data security."

Whoops.

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Comments

[Sevo]

Yes, there was a comment before this got transmogrified:
No, no, no! These data will never be used to, oh, influence an election! No!

[Ken Shultz]

Are the Proglodytes even faintly aware that someday their Lord and Savior, Barack Obama, isn't going to be in the White House anymore?

Because he's not, and when he's gone? Some Republican jackhole is going to use the fact that Barack Obama did this as a justification to do the exact same shit.

Sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Somebody's gotta be working on a database of databases, too. Cross reference who we talk to on the phone and for how long with how much each of those people carry in debt and where their money is.

...cross referenced with the master list of people in Occupy Wall Street. Can the CFPB order banks to deny home loans to certain people for secret reasons of national security yet? If they did, would we ever find out about it unless some new Snowden came forward?

Don't the Progs even care about their own necks?

[SweatingGin]

They probably believe their own propaganda -- "demographics ensures there will never be another republican president"

[Auric Demonocles]

Yet it's the Republicans that are racist.

[A Serious Man]

How many times do you reich-wing, Koch-sucking nutjobs have to be told? King Isildur Obama, having destroyed the evil Lord Sauron Bush, is just the Right Person to wield the One Ring of power.

[?J?? de ?guila]

Emperor Barack Afrikanus, World Ho-BItch, is the illegitimate spawn of Dubya and Condi.

That is the best reason to be a Bush-Basher.

[Ken Shultz]

The whole agency is a farce.

It's whole purpose is make it harder for poor people to get home loans.

Think about that for a second.

They got poor people to support the creation of an agency devoted to denying credit to poor people. Exactly what you'd expect from Elizabeth Warren's demon brain baby.

The headlines fade into obscurity, but the evil still remains. And the god damn CFPB isn't going away until somebody kills it--and that'll happen just as soon as we get rid of the income tax.

[Sevo]

Ken Shultz| 7.5.13 @ 8:24PM |#
..."It's whole purpose is make it harder for poor people to get home loans."...

Disagreed.
The purpose was to generate headlines about the 'caring' leftoids 'doing something' about the evil wall street vampires, leading to the lefty being re-elected.
It did that. The coverage in the Chron was right down the line; not a waver or a question as to 'unintended' results.
Secondarily, and no harm done, it provided a whole new group of gov't employees/SEIU members, providing even more cushion for the lefty's ass.
Now what more could a lefty politico want?

[Ken Shultz]

Its ostensible purpose was to stop banks from "preying" on poor people by giving them home loans.

Or, at least that's they way you say it if you're Elizabeth Warren.

In reality, a lot of intergenerational poverty has to do with not being able to get access to credit.

In reality, the purpose of the CFPB was to insert the government as a barrier between people who offer loans and people who want them--and to prevent poor people from getting those loans, so Barack Obama doesn't have to take the blame for bailing the banks out.

It was always horseshit on its face. A better solution was to let investors take the hit if they take on too many risky loans--and for the voters to throw the president out on his ass if he uses our future paychecks to bail out Wall Street investors, but noooOOOoooo.

[Sevo]

Ken Shultz| 7.5.13 @ 8:51PM |#
..."Or, at least that's they way you say it if you're Elizabeth Warren."...

Which is exactly the reason I'm calling bullshit.
The claimed preference is not the revealed preference.

[Some Chick from OH]

I could have sworn the purpose of the CFPB was to put more and more small to mid-sized credit unions out of business with crushing, impossible-up-with-to-keep regulations. Maybe that's just considered icing on the cake. (Even if smaller institutions are "exempt" from a regulation, someone at the CU has to read & analyze the regulation to CONFIRM that they're exempt!)

[Ken Shultz]

That was just icing on the cake.

[Ken Shultz]

Oh, and speaking of icing on the cake, if we're pulling out old jams from YouTube in this thread, I'd dedicate this one to Warren:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KHRpzVXRGU

[InlineSkate]

Hey how do you expect grown adults to understand how much they can and can't afford?!?

I mean that would require math and budgeting! What kind of monster would make people go through that?

/s

[Spartacus]

Poster child for CFPB.

[SweatingGin]

"They got poor people to support the creation of an agency devoted to denying credit to poor people. Exactly what you'd expect from Elizabeth Warren's demon brain baby."

They're clever, I'll give them that.

Since poor people will have less access to credit, obviously we need an agency to ensure they have more access to credit. Looser standards, more loans.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, I guess the problem is that the poor are being given credit--and then expected to make their payments.

...and that's obviously racist on its face.

Credit card companies have been doing this profitably for years. Yeah, some people get credit cards who shouldn't, and the credit card companies sometimes eat it when people declare bankruptcy--so they charge rates to cover those losses...

Meanwhile, they make credit available to people who wouldn't have any access to credit otherwise. And has the government needed to step in and bail out the credit card companies?

It was all marketing. Elizabeth Warren was looking to make a name for herself, and Obama fought to create an agency that she could use to make a name for herself nationally. So she sold us a bill of goods, and when the Republicans wizened up, they made it clear they would never approve her as the head of the damn agency...

Warren is so obnoxious and dangerous. She makes Obama look like a supply-sider. Here she is when she first started fund raising...listen in at 0:58 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs

She said that before Obama made his "You didn't build that" speech. He almost certainly got that from her.

She could very well win the Democratic nomination. And if she wins as Vice-President, she'll be a threat to get into the White House for a long time to come. If the Republicans don't learn to shut up about culture war stuff real quick, we may never dig ourselves out of the hole.

[SweatingGin]

I'd forgotten a bit about that, but yea. She could definitely get the dem nom, and just turn on all-out class warfare.

[Len Bias]

"If the Republicans don't learn to shut up about culture war stuff real quick, we may never dig ourselves out of the hole."

So, in other words, we'll never dig ourselves out of the hole. I fear too many GOP'ers wold rather squander everything than live in a world where gays can marry. I hope I'm wrong.

But, in all seriousness, Warren is scary. She's everything people purport Obama to be: articulate (even without a teleprompter), intelligent and principled (in a bad way). She's also better than Obama at pretending that she likes capitalism, but just wants to tweak it slightly to avoid "market failures."

However, she tends to resonate more with hardcore progs, middle Americans and moderates might find her even more condescending and self-righteous than they do Obama.

[Ken Shultz]

She's writing her autobiography right now.

Sort of Clinton's "The Man From Hope" movie or Obama's "The Audacity of Hope".

If Oprah were still on network television, Warren would go on there, and it would be a best seller for sure.

At any rate, the only reason you write a book like that is to go on a publicity tour. She'll be everywhere--soon.

I think our best "hope" (Get it? I made a funny!) is to Palin her. You know how Palin couldn't be taken seriously becasue she'd been ridiculed so harshly?

We need to hit Granny Cheekbones--like that.

[VG Zaytsev]

She's writing her autobiography right now.

I wonder if she'll talk about how she has high cheekbones like all the injuns do or if she'll highlight getting rich by flipping foreclosed homes.

[Len Bias]

"I think our best "hope" (Get it? I made a funny!) is to Palin her. You know how Palin couldn't be taken seriously becasue she'd been ridiculed so harshly?"

Except the media is going to promote and protect her as fiercely as they attacked Palin.

I think the only real hope is that 55% of voters wake up to the the kind of world she (and Obama) want us to live in. That, and the GOP providing a serviceable alternative.

[VG Zaytsev]

It's amazing that the rich Irish retards in MA fall for that class warfare bullshit.

Except that it's not.

Although I do wander how much longer wealthy 'ethnic' whites will fall for that type of culture war crap.

[VG Zaytsev]

If the Republicans don't learn to shut up about culture war stuff real quick....

Warren's shtick is pure culture war crap. It's an appeal to

a) rich white ethnics that identify as the little guy, even though they aren't, because their grandparents were poor.

b) Self identifying intellectuals that think they should be running the world and are pissed that ignorant merchants and tradesmen make more money than they do.

[Len Bias]

This is what I'm hoping, that she'll appeal to like-minded, elitist, guilt-ridden and self-loathing rich people while the rest of the country will be put off by her.

[Zeke]

I read the article. It doesn't mention Zimmerman's gay marriage to an aborted fetus ANYWHERE!

[Sevo]

Nor Elvis' alien love-child on the grassy knoll!

[RightNut]

This article fails to mention that the CFPB is a anti-constitutional farce.

The head of the agency was appointed when Emperor-God Obama decreed Congress was in "recess" even though congress was not.

The CFPB is funded via the U.S. Treasury, which greatly reduces the amount of oversight congress has over it. This directly violates the constitution by violating Congress's power of the purse.

In a sane world those who proposed the CFPB(Sen. Dodd, Rep. Frank) would be driven on a rail out of Washington. In our world, they retire respected, and rich.

[Tman]

When it's doing something useful, like going after collection companies that violate consumer rights under the FDCPA or the FCRA, it's actually doing the job that the FTC should be doing anyways. So yay! Another bureaucracy doing 1% useful and 99% pissing away billions.

When it's not doing things that other departments should be doing (for reasons that appear suspect), the CFPB is yet another shining example of how the government can't fix everything, and indeed appears to make it worse when its resolutions are applied.

For example, the CFPB has links about Identity Theft that direct you to the...........FTC page for identity theft.

It is a matter of time before someone from the CFPB loses a part of the PII (Personal Identification Information) data that they've swept up. And then 2 million people will get letters informing them that their mortgage application is now located in a server in Nigeria so here's a year free of Lifelock.

Hilarious.

[Sevo]

"It is a matter of time before someone from the CFPB loses a part of the PII (Personal Identification Information) data that they've swept up. And then 2 million people will get letters informing them that their mortgage application is now located in a server in Nigeria so here's a year free of Lifelock."

After the IRS 'rogue Cintians', I'm not sure the data will get 'lost', so much as 'used'.
I'm not hinting at conspiracy, just mendacity; there's plenty of that in gov't, just look at the royal Valerie Jarret pronouncements of a delay to 'help business'.

[VG Zaytsev]

When it's doing something useful, like going after collection companies that violate consumer rights under the FDCPA or the FCRA, it's actually doing the job that the FTC should be doing anyways. So yay! Another bureaucracy doing 1% useful and 99% pissing away billions.

And without a doubt in the near future it will join the FTC in ignoring those abuses.

[myaskyler9]

until I saw the draft four $7371, I did not believe ...that...my mother in law could actually bringing home money part time on their laptop.. there moms best frend has been doing this for under twentey months and a short time ago cleared the debts on their place and got a brand new Renault 5. go to, Go to site and open Home for details
http://WWW.JOBS31.COM

[Ken Shultz]

$7371?!

Jesus Christ, what did your mother in law have to cam herself doing to make that kind of cash?

Please tell me there weren't any farm animals involved?

[Sevo]

Are you kidding? That's what the critters got! Momma got porked in the butt for $50!

[oscarwhitehead01]

up to I saw the check 4 $4313, I did not believe that my neighbour realie bringing in money part-time at there labtop.. there moms best frend has done this 4 only about twenty two months and a short time ago took care of the dept on there cottage and bought themselves a BMW. I went here.... http://WWW.CNN13.COM

[Ken Shultz]

I haven't heard that one in years!