CFPB, I Didn't Love You, But I Know We'll Miss You
A Eulogy
Soft music playing in the background: "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)” by Cinderella.
CFPB, I didn’t know you long, and I didn’t necessarily love you during the time you were around. It’s time to honor your life and recognize departure.
Your birth was the result of a bipartisan effort, a response to the 2008 crash that nearly destroyed our entire economic system as part of Dodd-Frank. Some felt that you might represent overreach. Others felt that your protection for the little guy, in hindsight of what happened with the housing crash, was worthwhile. But it was a different time. A time when pragmatic politicians from both sides of the aisle could come together. Sadly that time is gone and with it, you are gone as well.
For years, until your formation, and even some time after, I had to listen to every so-called expert label the lending business in which I chose to work as crooked, criminal, and opportunistic. Essentially, a villainous pit of snakes. To say the least, the portrayal of mortgage lenders was unflattering. But it is interesting that I have yet to hear anyone adversly impacted by the housing crash to acknowledge their own culpability. So with the perceived den of scumbaggery that was the lending industry and people unable to own their own protection, it seemed like you had a place in the world.
Before you were formed, as a lender, I’d see people get misled by others who would lie, cheat, and steal to close a deal. They’d come back to me after being burned, but by then, the damage was done. Despite my straightforward approach, I’d often lose business to those making empty promises. The CFPB, while adding burdens, at least helped curb these bad actors, ensuring that those who misled consumers couldn’t continue unchecked. I admit hating having to do CE, and I didn’t necessarily love that there was now a complaint channel that was regularly used by consumers when they were not happy with their own mistakes and decisions. I did, however, encourage people who came to me to save their deals to engage with you when they were truly misled or the service did not meet minimal expectations. In enforcing laws and regulations in that capacity, you protected my business by removing bad actors and for that I thank you.
Financial institutions hated you because they felt that you quelled their creativity and limited their ability to provide services to individual clients. While they’re not necessarily out to harm consumers, they are definitely out to make money off them with as little cost as possible. I invest, I get that and do not villainize them for that. I do, however, understand the need for a check to ensure that their creativity is not at consumer expense. Again a place in the world for you.
Granted not every institution needed heavy regulation, but having the CFPB as a shield provided consumers with an "Iron Dome" of protection against financial exploitation or crimes we’ve seen before and some we have not—from the point of sale to the top of an organization. And when some, like Wells Fargo, were even willing to engage in blatantly illegal practices to meet their numbers and appease investors and Wall Street, your protection is all the more important. Either way, people who have been unwilling to hold up their side of caveat emptor have signed up for it. So, I guess we are going to try it. Let the buyer beware.
Now, your departure might not directly impact my family and me, so I may not notice you’re gone—except in lending, where I’ll see the requirements for education and accountability drop significantly. For that, I’ll likely be more successful as I’ll be able to focus more on business development and less on things like licensing, continuing education, and other aspects that the CFPB complicated. So I will remember you fondly and celebrate the opportunity that this brings. Any clients that I help will surely receive the fair and honest treatment that I have always offered, but with the likely influx into the lending when licensing and other barriers to entry go away, that will not be true across the industry. Who knows, with the growth of AI and eventual point of sale integration, the algorythms will surely take care of any possible immoral, unethical and illegal behavior through self-policing.
The other time I’ll know you’re gone is when the inevitable crash happens. I don’t know in what sector that it will occur, but removing the "fear" part of the fear-and-greed equation creates an imbalance that will be exploited, and there will be a crash. At that time, many of the people now cheering your departure will be wondering who should have been out there to protect them. They will realize the value that your protection provided, but sadly it will be in memoriam. They will realize what they had but it will be gone.
Not only will they not be protected, but their tax money will likely go to bail out whichever industry or industries took a gamble. With plans like Project 2025 aiming to defang and almost eliminate the SEC and other regulatory bodies, a large amount of the protections and guardrails for the general public will be gone. When the the bad things happen and the current direction for fiscal policy is heightening that possibility, I hope that those who voted for this will visit your grave out of respect of what they killed. I, however, assure you that I won’t be shedding a tear for those who brought this upon themselves. Caveat emptor and all…
Want to see who else is in the dead pool?
This will not make me rich but helps me keep up the fight. It also lets you show your support for retaking America with a movement of sanity and practicality.
