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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2106 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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what's the bull case for Elon's plan to delete the CFPB?

(aside from "infuriate Elizabeth Warren" which I can sympathize with)

I consider it bad that some section of the population is too stupid not to wind up paying all of their future income to banks in the form of interest and fees and good that one agency exists to push back on them a little

“Bull case”? Do you mean the case for why-it-would-be-a-good-thing for the market, or just generally a good thing?

I had an issue with my (now former) HSA provider, National Benefit Services, debiting my account weeks before the payment (never) arrived; they refused to send me any documentation such as an image of the check or the name of the party that actually did cash it, if any; when I eventually filed a case with the CFPB they closed it with this weird, vague-ass message:

We reviewed your complaint and weren't able to forward it to the company for a response either because the company is not on our complaint system, or because we do not currently handle complaints about this product or issue.

like, “either we totally can't help you, or you misfiled your complaint (we had many near matches to that account category, hope you picked the right one!), or that company isn't on a freaking WHITELIST of companies we will consider chastising” is just so damn useless…

here's an argument for shutting it down from the CFPB director during Trump's first term

https://nypost.com/2025/02/03/opinion/consumer-watchdog-hounded-us-businesses-lets-shut-it-down/

CFPB is a weird thing. It's basically a power of it's own, which is supposed to be independent from all the executive and controlling a lot of aspects in US financial system. I'm not sure how it is supposed to work in the republican (not Republican) form of government in the US. I mean, if there's an agency that can order banks around, and the President and the Congress have absolutely no control over it, how the President and the Congress can execute their policies that the People elected them to do?

Moreover, aren't there other bank regulators already? I mean there's OCC, the Fed, FTC, FDIC, FinCEN, SEC, CFTC, HUD, Treasury, and that's just on federal level, each state probably has their own stuff. Couldn't all those guys do their job without creating yet another agency?

That independence got a severe neutering when the 5 year term of the director (without Presidential oversight was declared unconstitutional).

CFPB:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) helps consumers by providing educational materials and accepting complaints. It supervises banks, lenders, and large non-bank entities, such as credit reporting agencies and debt collection companies.

(Not a response, just adding context)

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