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.