Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released their latest attempt to stifle lending in the United States via rules governing short-term loans. And it has prompted widespread opposition.
One of the voices has been former GOP Presidential candidate, and Editor in Chief of Forbes Media, Steve Forbes. He noted:
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been the source and driver of the most aggressive, unchecked assault on American commerce in modern times. Since its inception, the CFPB has issued a mountain of rules that have done nothing but restricted consumers’ access to credit and other basic financial services, while imposing billions of dollars in unnecessary costs and creating millions of hours of compliance paperwork for small businesses.
It is no wonder that a federal appeals court last year ruled that the CFPB’s unaccountable governing structure was unconstitutional. In an ironic twist, the CFPB just released a survey which found that nearly half of U.S. adults struggle with their finances. This is all the more reason why we need to eliminate the CFPB, once and for all, so that the American people will be freed from the agency’s regulatory chokehold and be allowed to take control of their financial futures again.”
Were people clamoring for more government regulation on how they access credit in the United States? Not really.
What are your thoughts?
Ignore the issue of consumer protection. Instead, substitute any other aspect or issue in America, from Abortion to Zoos, and ask if the American people would accept every aspect of that issue be decided entirely via decree by a bureaucrat with no accountability to elected leaders.
CFPB is the American equivalent of Soviet central planning.
In the 1950s half of all loans were negotiated through pawn shops. Back then my father hocked his .22 every month to get $10 to make it to his next paycheck. (The shop owner had a heart of gold and never charged dad for the advance.) Today, payday lenders have replaced pawn shops for the most part, and they have been an option for that large slice of the population that resists institutional lenders. I believe the last figure I saw on the matter was that 40 percent — and especially immigrants — rejects traditional banking services.
Much of the opposition to short-term lenders is couched in the language of looking out for the poor. Question: Since payday lenders were shut down in South Dakota after the last election, is there any evidence of the poor flocking to institutional lenders?
Government restricting credit can cause havoc. (Ask any farmer or business owner.) By the same token, government-aided access to easy credit led to the housing collapse in 2008. Crazy, no?
Hickey was duped by the left and still hasn’t realized it.
MHS,
Absolutely great point. This is a vehicle/mechanism/ which entrusts excessive power outside any accountability to the people. In a country which values freedom and government accoutablt to the people, nobody should support this monstrosity.