Another explosion
Nope this is no good. Consumer financial protection is a good thing.
CNN:
Russell Vought took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday night and officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency deleted the banking watchdog’s X account, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
Vought’s new role, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came a day after he was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
The source told CNN that DOGE officials have been granted administrative access to CFPB systems, including content management system, back-end systems for the bureau’s website and the active directory of personnel.
Gee I wonder why guys like Trump and Musk would want to get rid of consumer financial protection.
A letter signed by dozens of House Democrats on Saturday called on Bessent to “rescind what appears to be an illegal stop work order.”
The letter, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said the lawmakers are “deeply alarmed and troubled” by efforts to sideline the CFPB. The lawmakers asked Bessent to respond to a series of questions about what his freeze means for consumers previously found to have been harmed by a financial institution.
Don’t ask. Order.
Trust in the US stock market — worldwide — depends on institutions like the CFPB to keep things transparent and fair. Musk and his DOGE techbros do not understand, that what they are doing might undermine the financial position of the US in the world.
Dave, I think we can safely assume the 19-25 year old tech bro’s who are doing much of the pillaging and breaking of the IT systems on Musk’s orders are not deep economic and political thinkers. Musk, Trump and many others know perfectly well that there are massive personal fortunes to be made amongst chaos (both legally and illegally). Then there are the architects of 2025, who are prepared to burn the Government and everything it has wrought to the ground so they can rebuild it in an image that fits their ideology. As long as the pain is someone else’s they don’t care.
Rob – definitely. And the fact that they ALREADY have massive personal fortunes doesn’t seem to be enough. It’s like if there is one dollar out there not in the hands of a rich man, something is desperately wrong. (This was a theme expressed by Donald Pleasance in Madwoman of Chaillot and it resonates here.) If having several hundred billions isn’t enough personal fortune for you, then your life must be empty indeed.
So is the playbook destroy US/World economy, dismantle the US government barring some of its coercive powers, make the US a pariah such that no one is interested in dealing with us, then foist Catholic integralism (or a competing utopianist vision) upon a population whose lives are now nasty, brutish, and short?
There seems to be some inherent instabilities and contradictions in that plan if so…