The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was set up after the Great Recession to protect consumer finances. Republicans hated it from the start, and you can hardly blame them. After all, there are two sides to everything, and if you’re protecting consumer finances you must be protecting them from something. And that something is big banks and other financial corporations. Republicans don’t like it when their CEO pals are told that they have to treat their customers fairly or risk big fines.
Still, there was nothing Republicans could do about it once the CFPB was set up. Its funding comes from the Fed and its director is independent of Congress. But then Donald Trump was elected president. He couldn’t dismantle the CFPB or cut its funding, but he could install a new director who would simply decide not to bother opening any cases. So that’s what he did:
Do you feel safer now?
