Pour one out for the CFPB

Working in the finance industry has given me a great deal of appreciation for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Created in response to the 2008 recession, it protects consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices by financial institutions.

Recently, the Trump administration ordered the CFPB to halt all work, and cease its own funding. It’s a disaster, but more low key and less visible than all the other disasters. So, in mourning the CFPB, I’d like to review what it actually did.

The general case for the CFPB

The finance industry is fairly opaque to the average consumer. This creates an information asymmetry, where consumers can’t tell if a financial institution is being fair and honest. So, if consumers can’t even see when an institution is being fair and honest, it’s a competitive disadvantage to even bother.

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It’s the economy

When playing the blame game for the 2024 presidential election, a lot of people point towards social issues. Not to dispute the importance of white identity politics, but polling suggests that the largest concern among voters was the economy, so let’s at least give that issue the time of day.

The funny thing about the economy is that it tends to lag behind economic policy, or just do its own thing based on external factors. During elections, people blame current economic conditions on the current president, even though those economic conditions might have little to do with the president’s actions, or could even be blamed on the previous president. The nightmare scenario is people blaming Biden for the consequences Trump’s bad policies, and then later crediting Trump for the consequences of Biden’s good policies.

This is why it might help to understand what good or bad economic policy looks like. In general, this is hard. But Trump makes it easy, with his very obviously bad economic proposals.

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No apology

Imagine, if you will, using a public restroom.  After about a minute, a stranger that you were barely paying attention to, pipes up unprompted.  “I’m sorry I haven’t been a proper conversational partner.  I’m just not in the mood for small talk today.”  Awkward silence…

A bit of wisdom from over 15 years hobby blogging: never apologize for an absence.  While I might have a personal commitment to write this or that much, barely any readers will be aware of my commitment, and none will care that I’ve missed it.  Apologizing for absence is a form of self-centeredness–and it’s natural to be self-centered on a personal blog, but let us not express self-centeredness in a way that only serves to make ourselves feel bad.

And that’s not to invalidate feelings of inadequacy.  I have two or three more hobbies than I can reasonably sustain, the pain is real.  But publicly and uncritically expressing those feelings will only reinforce them.  So this is me giving voice to those negative feelings, while being highly critical of same feelings.

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Anti-trans “advice” defies sense

Okay, I’ll talk a bit about the election. In November, many people speculated on why Democrats lost the election. This has largely been an exercise in confirmation bias–everyone thinks reason Democrats lost is because they didn’t adopt *their* preferred politics, whatever those politics may be. I’m sorry to say, that’s not how evidence works.

One of the arguments has been that Harris lost points because she’s pro-trans. This is just another example of confirmation bias, and the evidence is found wanting.

To begin with, is Kamala Harris pro-trans? Where did people get that idea from? Republicans ran political ads attacking Kamala Harris for making pro-trans statements in the past, and the ads may or may not have been effective.

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2024 Election positions

As usual, when I write about election positions, my purpose is not primarily to persuade readers, but rather to normalize the research & voting process. I believe in doing a small amount of research so you know what you’re voting for, but it shouldn’t require so much research that you’re afraid to vote all the way down the ballot.

This will include discussion of obscure local elections, which obviously won’t be relevant to most readers.  That’s fine!  You can skip what bores you.  That’s just what voting down ballot is like.

President

Kamala Harris. You’ve likely already decided this, so there’s not much point to doing more research than necessary. But… I will say that Donald Trump has deliberately counterfeited election results, and plans to do more to subvert democracy again. So the least we can do is vote against him, even people who don’t live in swing states.

Really, one vote doesn’t feel like enough, so that’s why I make my displeasure known by voting against Republicans in every election, all the way down the ballot. Kamala Harris is a good candidate in her own right, of course, but even in cases where I complain about the Democrat, I still vote against Republicans.

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Is Kamala Harris Black?

Yes. Obviously.

Although, if we want to be pedantic about it, it’s less clear that she’s African American. In the US, “Black” is split into two groups: Black African and Black Caribbean. Harris is mixed race—Indian on her mother’s side, and Jamaican on her father’s side—which would classify her as Black Caribbean.

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Vote for Democracy 2024

In January 6th, 2021, Donald Trump incited a riot on the US Capitol to try to overturn the US presidential election. Most people know that. But for those who missed it, I’d like to highlight the worst part. Prior to the riots, the Trump campaign deliberately tried to counterfeit the election results. The purpose of the riot was to demand that congress to accept the counterfeit.

In an obscure step of the US election process, each state submits a “certificate of ascertainment” that declares the final vote count and winner of the election. The Trump team submitted fraudulent certificates of ascertainment in seven states. Nobody was fooled by the fraudulent certificates, but the Trump team argued that Trump’s vice president Mike Pence had the power to accept the counterfeit certificates anyway. All they had to do was pressure Mike Pence to do so.

Therefore, the primary target of the January 6 riot was not democrats, but rather Mike Pence. Thus, the “Hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters.

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