Mick Mulvaney is now the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is what he said about his plans when it comes to protecting consumers*:
"We're going to try and limit as much as we can what the CFPB does to sort of interfere with capitalism and with the financial services market."
It's nice that he has taken off his carnival mask so that we can all see he is on the side against which the CFPB was created.
The front page of the CFPB website tells us how the bureau is trying to stop payday loan debt traps. It also gives you tips about what to do after the Equifax data breach.
Are those the types of things which interfere with capitalism?
That depends on the definition of capitalism. If klepto-capitalism is included, sure. But we really shouldn't include the exploitation of consumers under the definition of capitalism.
Mick Mulvaney's role at the CFPB is the by-now familiar one of the fox guarding the chicken coops. That's because the corporate donors which rule the Republican Party want consumer protections to disappear. Business is better for them that way.
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* Wish to know Mr. Mulvaney better? Here's an earlier post on his budgetary views. In this post he talks about private responsibility for diabetes. And in this one he suspects that able-bodied people are taking advantage of disability insurance. It's remarkable how Mulvaney can see ethical problems among the poor but cannot seem to spot any in klepto-capitalism.