1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,599 Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here. 2 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:05,200 Speaker 2: Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, 3 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 2: and we are so excited about what that means for 4 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:08,720 Speaker 2: the future of the show. 5 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 3: This is the only place where you can find honest 6 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:13,239 Speaker 3: perspectives from the left and the right that simply does 7 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 3: not exist anywhere else. 8 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,080 Speaker 2: So if that is something that's important to you, please 9 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:19,599 Speaker 2: go to Breakingpoints dot com. Become a member today and 10 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 2: you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad free, 11 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,600 Speaker 2: and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. 12 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 3: We need your help to build the future of independent 13 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 3: news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints 14 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:30,600 Speaker 3: dot com. 15 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,559 Speaker 1: Part of the reason the CFPB has been targeted is 16 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:39,199 Speaker 1: because you have big tech conglomerates that are looking to 17 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: get into banking, lending and payments, and they don't even 18 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: want a minor speed bump in that process. Mister musk 19 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: Elon Musk he has stated they want twitter x to 20 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: become a bank, the ability to move and track payments 21 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: across its platforms, and I think that it's reasonable for 22 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: Americans to wonder why is he targeting this little agency. 23 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,480 Speaker 4: Today's guest is from One Angle, a hero to millions 24 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 4: of people for returning billions of dollars to consumers as 25 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,440 Speaker 4: the director former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 26 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 4: To Jamie Diamond, he's an arrogant, out of touch soob 27 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 4: to billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Andresen. 28 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 5: He's a vile threat to the American Republic. 29 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 4: He is Roehit Chopra, former head of the CFP, former 30 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 4: FTC commissioner, pushed out recently by Donald Trump. 31 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,199 Speaker 5: Welcome rowhead, great to be with you. So let's start. 32 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 4: We have a lot to get through, because there has 33 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,320 Speaker 4: been a lot thrown your way in at the way 34 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 4: of the CFPB. But let's start with Jamie Diamond, who, 35 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 4: as we just put up there during a town hall 36 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 4: with his own banking employees, just utterly unleashed on you. 37 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 5: Again, out of touch son of a gun. 38 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 4: Except he didn't say gun the family program, So we'll 39 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 4: stick with gun. Why why is Jamie Diamond so angry 40 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 4: at you? 41 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: Well, I don't know exactly. I probably have some Well 42 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: I get it. This is an extremely emotional time for 43 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: him and others. One of President Trump's first set of 44 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: remarks at Davos, actually he called out Jamie Diamond and 45 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: Brian moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America by name. 46 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: The issue of de banking, deplatforming is one that has 47 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: really cut across lines. And also there's some real questions about, 48 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,959 Speaker 1: you know, the lawsuit that we brought against JP, Morgan 49 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: Chase and other banks for allowing fraud to fester on Zell. 50 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 1: I think that lawsuit will We'll let it work through 51 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: the courts. But there's some questions about whether the new 52 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: CFPB will simply defund all of its investigations against big 53 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: banks and big tech companies. And that's really an open 54 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: one for all of us. 55 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 4: There was also something about Jamie Diamond didn't like something 56 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 4: you guys were pushing about letting people move their money 57 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 4: from one bank to another. 58 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:20,360 Speaker 5: What was that one? 59 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: Yes, some of the largest banks, and I know he 60 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 1: was personally very upset the idea of giving consumers the 61 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: ability to switch their accounts more seamlessly. You might remember Ryan. 62 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 5: To move your money movement. 63 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: Well, remember when you actually couldn't change your phone carrier's 64 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: right unless you switched to your phone number. And the 65 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: FCC issued an order saying, no, let's give consumers a 66 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: little bit more power to vote with their feet. That's 67 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: exactly one of the laws that had been on the books. 68 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: It sat dormant, but during my time there, we wanted 69 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: to make that a reality because we saw the billions 70 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: of dollars that large banks credit card companies were able 71 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: to harvest because they create an obstacle course to switching accounts. 72 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 4: Ye, so you brought up de banking, So let's let's 73 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 4: move to that one, which is not the one I 74 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:20,360 Speaker 4: have in here. 75 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: H one. 76 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 5: But let's let's start with h H two. 77 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 4: This is Mark Zuckerberg appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast, and 78 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 4: I want people to notice that when he's about to 79 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 4: say the word consumer, he pretends to forget the name 80 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 4: of the agency because it isn't helpful to him. I 81 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 4: think to call it the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because 82 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 4: you're starting on your back foot when you're a company 83 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 4: that says you're against that. So let's roll H two here, 84 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 4: and then I want to get you to respond to 85 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 4: this Zuckerberg allegation. 86 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 6: And we had organizations that were looking into us that 87 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 6: were like not really involved with social media, like the CFPB, 88 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 6: like this financial I don't even know what it stands for. 89 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 6: It's the it's the financial organization that Elizabeth Warren had 90 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,360 Speaker 6: set up. Oh great, And it's basically it's like, we're 91 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 6: not a bank. 92 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 7: The bank. 93 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 6: Yeah, so we're not a bank, right, It's like like 94 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,039 Speaker 6: what what does meta have to do with this? But 95 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 6: they kind of found some theory that they wanted to investigate, 96 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 6: and it's like, okay, clearly they were trying really hard, 97 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 6: right to like find find some theory. But it like, 98 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 6: I don't know, it just it kind of like throughout 99 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 6: the the the the the party and the government, there's 100 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 6: just sort of I don't know if it's I don't 101 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 6: know how this stuff works. I mean, I've never been 102 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 6: in government. I don't know if it's like a directive 103 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:43,839 Speaker 6: or it's just like a quiet consensus that like, we 104 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 6: don't like these guys. They're not doing what we want. 105 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:46,719 Speaker 5: We're gonna punish them. 106 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 6: But but it's uh, it's uh, it's tough to be 107 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 6: at the other end of that. What was it like, Well, 108 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 6: it's not good. I think the thing that I think 109 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 6: is actually the toughest is it's it's global right. So, 110 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 6: and really, when you think about it, the US government 111 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 6: should be defending its companies right, not be the tip 112 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 6: of the spirit attacking its companies. 113 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 4: All right, so Zackerbarg who later kind of implies there's 114 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 4: previous in this clip, he had said that because they 115 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,799 Speaker 4: were getting pressure to uh censor COVID content. 116 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 5: Well, then all of a sudden, the CFPB comes after. 117 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 4: Them over, you know, which he implies as part of 118 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 4: this kind of pressure campaign against Facebook. So what was 119 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,919 Speaker 4: CFPB's role in going after Facebook. 120 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 1: Well, it's actually funny in some ways because this is 121 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 1: a company that just about five years ago launched a 122 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: big ploy to start its own currency, to start its 123 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: own way. 124 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:54,720 Speaker 5: What were they going to call it? 125 00:06:54,839 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: Called Libra, And what you saw was an attempt. It 126 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: was a surveillance program essentially that if they could embed 127 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: payments throughout their whole empire of digital properties, they would 128 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 1: be able to track payments across the board. 129 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 5: You're like cookies to the next degree. 130 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, and in some ways that is really what many 131 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: say is a goal to ultimately move toward personalized pricing. 132 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: And look, the truth is, if you call companies, some 133 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: of these big tech companies, we are a social media company, please, 134 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: we know that their tentacles are all over and many 135 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: have significant aspirations in banking, lending and payments. We have 136 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,680 Speaker 1: seen that with Google, we have seen that with Apple, 137 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: and there are laws on the books Ryan that are 138 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 1: financial privacy laws. There are laws about how you can 139 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 1: traffic credit information like the credit bureaus do. So I'm 140 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: not going to comment on the investigation they disclosed it 141 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: to their investors the nature of it, but to suggest 142 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: that some of these companies are not engaging in some 143 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:15,440 Speaker 1: of the same exact practices as big financial conglomerates, I 144 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: mean as laughable, I'll tell you that. This is also 145 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,960 Speaker 1: I think part of the reason the CFPB has been 146 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 1: targeted is because you have big tech conglomerates that are 147 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,720 Speaker 1: looking to get into banking, lending and payments and they 148 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: don't even want a minor speed bump in that process. 149 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:40,960 Speaker 1: They don't even want, i think, to be held to 150 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Speaker 1: the same standards that when consumers are defrauded, or if 151 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: there's errors in their accounts, or if their information is 152 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: being harvested and trafficked to those overseas. I don't think 153 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: they want to even touch that. And the truth is 154 00:08:57,240 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: there's laws on the books and the job of the 155 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:01,199 Speaker 1: CFB was to enforce it. 156 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 4: So this appearance came after Mark Andresen. Venture Capitalist was 157 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 4: also on Joe Rogan. Uh, let's let's move to uh 158 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,040 Speaker 4: to Mark Andreas and one I think that's h h one. 159 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:17,839 Speaker 8: Here we have this thing called independent federal agencies Sully 160 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 8: for example, with this thing called the Consumer Finance Protection 161 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,679 Speaker 8: Bureau CFPB, which was the it's sort of Elizabeth Warren's 162 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 8: personal agency that she gets to control. And it's an 163 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 8: independent agency that just gets to run and do whatever 164 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:30,080 Speaker 8: it wants. Right, And if you read the constitution, like 165 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 8: there is no such thing as an independent agency, and 166 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:33,440 Speaker 8: yet there it is. 167 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:35,319 Speaker 1: What does her agency do? 168 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 8: Whatever she wants? 169 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: What does it do though? 170 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:42,160 Speaker 8: We basically terrorize financial terrorize financial institutions, prevent crypt fintech, 171 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:45,120 Speaker 8: prevent new competition, new startups that want to compete with 172 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,559 Speaker 8: a big bankery. Oh yeah, house, just terrorizing anybody who 173 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:50,079 Speaker 8: tries to do anything new in financial services. 174 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: And can you give me an example, said, you know. 175 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 8: De banking. This is where a lot of the d 176 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 8: banking comes from, is these agencies. So d banking is 177 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 8: when you're you as either a person or your company 178 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 8: or literally kicked out of the banking system like they 179 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,640 Speaker 8: did to Kanye exactly like they did the Kanye my 180 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 8: partner band's father has been d banked. Really, we had 181 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,320 Speaker 8: an employee for what for having the wrong politics, for 182 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,960 Speaker 8: saying unacceptable things under current banking regulations under okay, here's 183 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:16,079 Speaker 8: a great here's a great thing. Under current banking regulations. 184 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 8: After all the reforms the last twenty years, there's now 185 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:22,679 Speaker 8: a category called a politically exposed person PEP. And if 186 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 8: you were a PEP, you were required by financial regulators 187 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 8: to kick them off of your to kick them out 188 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:27,840 Speaker 8: of your bank. 189 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,640 Speaker 6: You're not allowed to if you're politically on the left. 190 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:34,440 Speaker 8: That's fine because they're not politically exposed. 191 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 6: So no one on the left gets d banked. 192 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:37,840 Speaker 8: Now, I have not heard of a single instance of it. 193 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 4: So much to unpack there. Let's start with his PEP claim. 194 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 4: What is a what is a politically exposed person? 195 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 7: Well? 196 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:48,440 Speaker 5: There anything accurate in what he said there? 197 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: There's a lot there. First of all, a politically exposed 198 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: person certainly would be someone who's like a government official, 199 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: who for example, could be subjected to bribery other things. 200 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:07,560 Speaker 4: But putting all all of the act completely misclassified, well, 201 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 4: I think. 202 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,439 Speaker 1: The point though, I would say, there's a place where 203 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:16,760 Speaker 1: I think is important, which is that when it comes 204 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: to debanking, I don't think people should ever lose their 205 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: account because of their exercising their religion speech. And I'll 206 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:30,600 Speaker 1: tell you one of the first things I did years 207 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:36,839 Speaker 1: ago was to put forth a stronger policy that made 208 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 1: it clear when that type of discrimination or debanking ran 209 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: a foul of the law. Guess who sued to block it. 210 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: It was actually the bank lobby and the Chamber of Commerce. 211 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: Then more recently, you know, we went through some court 212 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: press was there. 213 00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 5: What's their business rationale for wanting to block that? 214 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: I have no idea other than just that they were 215 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: saying that while that only really applies to lending, it 216 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: doesn't apply to banking. And you know, we could go 217 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: through the argument about whether the law prohibits that. So 218 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 1: I said, Okay, we're going to propose a rule. We're 219 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,720 Speaker 1: going to use a different procedure to make clear that 220 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: you cannot close someone's account or otherwise take a negative 221 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: action like that. Based on some of these core things, 222 00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:38,720 Speaker 1: we did not hear a peep a peep of support 223 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 1: from the big banks and others. So I think we 224 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:45,920 Speaker 1: need to start looking at some of the facts here, 225 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:51,600 Speaker 1: we should not allow deplatforming and debanking unless there is 226 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 1: some sort of legitimate reason, and I will share with 227 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: you we have heard a lot from the banks and 228 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:00,920 Speaker 1: others about this, but what we haven't seen is them 229 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:04,560 Speaker 1: showing their data. And one of the big places that 230 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:09,079 Speaker 1: they are closing accounts is using algorithms, and sometimes they 231 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: might not even know the answer why they are closing 232 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 1: those accounts. But the idea that the CFPB was somehow, 233 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,720 Speaker 1: I mean, I know he's conflating a whole set of 234 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: other regulators, and we also know that there are companies 235 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:28,480 Speaker 1: that he had invested in that were repeat offenders and 236 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 1: that the CFPP had to take multiple actions against, not 237 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 1: just by me, but even my predecessor put in place 238 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 1: by President Trump. So I don't know what that is, 239 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 1: but I think the idea that somehow, both the banks 240 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 1: and these fintech companies we were applying and aggressively enforcing 241 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,840 Speaker 1: the law when they were egregiously violating. 242 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 4: Did you did you run into any progressive opposition, because 243 00:13:55,520 --> 00:14:00,240 Speaker 4: I know sometimes progressive organizations would run campaigns to say, 244 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 4: you know, if this this person should not actually have 245 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:05,920 Speaker 4: access to banking services. 246 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:07,920 Speaker 5: So did you kind of push up against. 247 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: There had been you know, it was not there was definitely. 248 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: For example, I had undertaken an initiative with respect to 249 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 1: greater accountability for Blackrock. Blackrock is an investment giant. I 250 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: felt that if they were going to be pursuing certain 251 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: policy goals when taking over banks, they should actually, you know, 252 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: go through the process of saying we're taking over a bank, 253 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: rather than relying on some loopholes that say, well, we're 254 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,360 Speaker 1: just passive, we're not doing anything. And yeah, there maybe 255 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: I'm sure there was others who felt, why don't we 256 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 1: just you know, kind of leave them alone. Maybe they 257 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:54,360 Speaker 1: agree with the goals they're doing. My point was different, 258 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,800 Speaker 1: is that it's really about power. Who should have the 259 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:02,000 Speaker 1: power to determine what whether you're getting your account closed 260 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: because of no reason or a questionable reason, or how 261 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: they're saying they're passive but are really exerting a lot 262 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: of pressure on boards and CEOs. So I think we 263 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:18,480 Speaker 1: got to stick to our principles, which is that the 264 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,720 Speaker 1: laws on the books are supposed to prevent abuse of power. 265 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: And sure, maybe I agree with some of the maybe 266 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:28,000 Speaker 1: I agree with some of the Blackrock voting policies on. 267 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 5: Share environmental stuff. 268 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,640 Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter. I mean, they should still have 269 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: to go through the process that we have in place 270 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: in our laws to avoid abuse of that power, and 271 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: especially monopoly power. 272 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 5: So you passed a rule to bar debanking, and you've got. 273 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:50,240 Speaker 1: We proposed one and we'll see if it gets finalized. 274 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 5: Oh that's an interesting point. 275 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 4: It's all House Republicans are actually moving to repeal it. 276 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,560 Speaker 4: I don't know if you've noticed this with a piece 277 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 4: of their legislation. So have you been Have you been 278 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 4: surprised to see one of the number one attacks against 279 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,120 Speaker 4: the COPV being that it was doing the thing that 280 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 4: actually it's trying to ban. 281 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: Not really, I mean you saw even those on the 282 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: right pushback very hard on whatever that soliloquy was. That 283 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: being said. I think let's put our money where our 284 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: mouth is and say, let's all get on record across 285 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: the ideological spectrum that people should have a right to 286 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: a bank account. And we see so many people pushed 287 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 1: out of the banking system, and the economic impacts of 288 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: that are real now, of course, if they're engaged in 289 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: money laundering, criminal fraud, others. Sure, I mean I do 290 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:52,040 Speaker 1: favor some updates that give people the ability to have 291 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:56,000 Speaker 1: some access to the banking system, and many, for example, 292 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:00,160 Speaker 1: are kicked out because of overdraft, an overdraft feed churning. 293 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: We got to make sure that people when you're when 294 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:04,639 Speaker 1: you're kicked out of the banking system, it's almost like 295 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:06,320 Speaker 1: kicking someone on your screw economy. 296 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 4: Yeah, So when he says that CFPB is terrorizing financial 297 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:17,879 Speaker 4: companies and blocking FinTechs and other startups from competing with 298 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 4: big banks, what does he mean by that? 299 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,720 Speaker 1: That's in direct conflict with what you just mentioned was 300 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 1: JPMorgan Chase's criticism. You know, we actually put into place 301 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: the ability for smaller players to eat the lunch of 302 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,840 Speaker 1: their bigger competitors if they're providing better rates in service. 303 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:39,880 Speaker 4: That was just because you're setting setting up a pathway 304 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 4: for people to leave the big. 305 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:45,880 Speaker 1: Time switch and that was partly strongly supported by those 306 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,200 Speaker 1: new firms that we're trying to do it. And look, 307 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: some of them are doing some great things that allow 308 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 1: you to get lower interest rates on your loans, higher 309 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: rates on your savings. Look at what some of the 310 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:03,200 Speaker 1: banks offered. Even as the FED raised rates enormously, people's 311 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,000 Speaker 1: deposit rates barely budged. And we ended up needing to 312 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:11,879 Speaker 1: investigate some of that, including suing Capital One for cheating 313 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:14,720 Speaker 1: people out of billions of hours. I think we'll want 314 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:19,199 Speaker 1: to put more power in the hands of consumers for 315 00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:23,679 Speaker 1: them to fire a company with bad customer service and 316 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: to vote with their feet. 317 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,439 Speaker 4: So some of the companies financed by Andrees in the 318 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 4: fintech space or the crypto space say that the CFPB 319 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 4: has prevented them from doing what they want to do? 320 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,119 Speaker 5: What what? What does? What does he mean by that? 321 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: And how you respond to all I know is you 322 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: know right now? In terms of crypto, most of that 323 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:53,159 Speaker 1: was really a confrontation with other agencies, not with the CFPB. 324 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: The place the CFPB was always looking at his new 325 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:02,959 Speaker 1: digital payments, digital currencies, so video game platforms, you know, 326 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,840 Speaker 1: things like Facebook's Libra project, where it would be used 327 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:12,280 Speaker 1: to pay at stores or online. So we were always 328 00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:14,639 Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's the way we can create 329 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:20,520 Speaker 1: these new digital technologies without being ruined by fraudsters, errors, 330 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: and how do you make sure there's some base level 331 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,679 Speaker 1: of consumer protection that people have had on their debit 332 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:29,880 Speaker 1: cards and credit cards for decades and on fintech companies. 333 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,480 Speaker 1: I don't know I mean, certainly there have been venture 334 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:39,520 Speaker 1: capital firms who have been annoyed that the CFPB has 335 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,919 Speaker 1: taken some of their lawbreaking companies to court. And sometimes, 336 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,280 Speaker 1: you know, we battle it out in court, but certainly 337 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: we prevailed in many cases. And I'll tell you many 338 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,520 Speaker 1: of them are extremely well financed to fight back very hard. 339 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 5: Sure they are. So. 340 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,679 Speaker 4: One of the arguments Mark Zuckerberg also rolled out in 341 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:05,119 Speaker 4: that interview is that from a national security and a 342 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 4: kind of geopolitical perspective, the Silicon Valley and big tech 343 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,439 Speaker 4: in the United States is, you know, ought to be 344 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 4: just defended rather than than attacked. Let's play H three here. 345 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 4: It gets your respond to this other Zuckerberg argument. 346 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,920 Speaker 6: I think the real issue is that when the US 347 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 6: government does that to its tech industry, it's basically just 348 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:28,960 Speaker 6: open season around the rest of the world, right. I 349 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:32,040 Speaker 6: mean the EU, I pull these numbers. The EU has 350 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 6: fined the tech companies more than thirty billion dollars over 351 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 6: the last I think it was like ten or twenty years. 352 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:39,879 Speaker 1: Holy and shit. 353 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,639 Speaker 6: So when you think about it, like okay, there's it's like, 354 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 6: you know, one hundred million dollars here, a couple of 355 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,040 Speaker 6: billion dollars there. But what I think really adds up 356 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 6: to is this is sort of like a kind of 357 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:54,679 Speaker 6: EU wide policy for how they want to deal with 358 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 6: American tech. It's almost like a tariff, and I think 359 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 6: the US government basically gets to dec how are they 360 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,000 Speaker 6: going to deal with that? Right because if the US government, 361 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 6: if some other country was screwing with another industry that 362 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,159 Speaker 6: we cared about, the US government would probably find some 363 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 6: way to put pressure on them. But I think what 364 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,720 Speaker 6: happened here is actually the complete opposite. The US government 365 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:20,000 Speaker 6: led the kind of attack against the companies, which then 366 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,399 Speaker 6: just made it like the EU is basically in all 367 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 6: these other places just free to just go to town on 368 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 6: all the American companies and do whatever you want. 369 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:31,040 Speaker 1: What would you say to Zuckerberg there, Well, you know, 370 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:37,639 Speaker 1: we've all gotten various forms of questions. For example, in 371 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,400 Speaker 1: the past few years, we did a number of enforcement 372 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 1: actions against certain Japanese automakers whose lending and credit reporting 373 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: was completely botched. Now, the way we do it is 374 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: we look at consumer complaints, we'll look at where there's 375 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,959 Speaker 1: actual harm, and I do think it's important for us 376 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,720 Speaker 1: to prove, you know, where we finding this non compliance 377 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: But on the other hand, this is a strange comment 378 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: in some way he's made because it was actually and 379 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: I was an FTC commissioner at the time. During the 380 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: Trump administration, we had a bipartisan antitrust complaint against Facebook. 381 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: Same thing happened on Google, and those have carried forward 382 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: across administrations. And here's the reason why in the US 383 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 1: we want our economy progressing, not based on cheating, but 384 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: on competing. And we have found a number of cases 385 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: where big firms, whether they're domestic, whether they're foreign, have 386 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 1: been cornering the market or monopolizing it. And we have 387 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,280 Speaker 1: laws on the books, and just because they are global conglomerates, 388 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,959 Speaker 1: that does not mean they should not honor our laws. 389 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,040 Speaker 1: I have to tell you, I really don't think that 390 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,119 Speaker 1: all of these firms genuinely think of themselves as American companies. 391 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: I think some of them think of themselves as just 392 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:13,199 Speaker 1: a multi national investor base. And the north star is 393 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,800 Speaker 1: profit and they if they want to get rid of 394 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,919 Speaker 1: laws in countries across the world, that's what they're going 395 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: to do. But to suggest that, you know, Facebook and 396 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: other big tech companies have been just so squeaky clean 397 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,840 Speaker 1: when it comes to following the laws is frankly. 398 00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,720 Speaker 4: A joke, and so speaking of getting getting rid of 399 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:38,479 Speaker 4: laws or ignoring them. This is Elon Musk's famous tweet 400 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:41,119 Speaker 4: where he said, delete CFPB, there are too many duplicative 401 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 4: regulatory agencies. Interestingly, that was a reply to somebody who 402 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,160 Speaker 4: was correcting Mark Andresen and saying, hey, man, you're wrong 403 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 4: about this. Actually, the CFPB is against dbanking and is 404 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,679 Speaker 4: fighting it, and Musk interestingly comes in and says, basically saying, I. 405 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:03,000 Speaker 5: Don't care like elete this and then put up H five. 406 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 4: The White House very quickly put out this statement saying 407 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,720 Speaker 4: CFPB isn't a Wall Street regulator, it's a main street regulator, 408 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,240 Speaker 4: and they are effectively trying to move to shut it down. 409 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:18,440 Speaker 4: In their list of bill of indictments basically against them, 410 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:19,879 Speaker 4: they list a bunch of things, and I want to 411 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:20,520 Speaker 4: run through. 412 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:22,440 Speaker 5: Some of them since we got you here and got 413 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:22,879 Speaker 5: some time. 414 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 4: So the White House says CFPB targeted a Chicago small 415 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:34,000 Speaker 4: business after it complained about the city's rampant crime. 416 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,360 Speaker 5: That sounds bad. Why did CFPB do that. 417 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:43,879 Speaker 1: Well, you'd have to ask President Trump CFPB director, because 418 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:48,359 Speaker 1: she's the one who brought that case. I reviewed that case. 419 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: The case was actually a lending discrimination case or a 420 00:24:53,240 --> 00:25:01,440 Speaker 1: mortgage lender in Chicago essentially was refuse and not offering 421 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 1: mortgage loans to certain neighborhoods. I think the idea that 422 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,879 Speaker 1: it was something about uh, I don't even know what 423 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 1: that bullet was saying. But what's funny is that it's 424 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:19,399 Speaker 1: it's it has nothing to do with that bullet, and 425 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,880 Speaker 1: it was brought under the last trumpet illustration. Another one 426 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 1: of those bullets I just noticed talks about our victims 427 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: Relief fund. During my time as director, we returned the 428 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:36,280 Speaker 1: slush fund. And what's funny is that it's a victims 429 00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 1: relief fund. During my time, we collected I think nine 430 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:46,399 Speaker 1: billion dollars in refunds and penalties. And here's how it works. 431 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:53,280 Speaker 1: The penalties paid by companies like Apple, Goldman, Sachs, Wells Fargo. 432 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:58,800 Speaker 1: They go to compensate victims where the defendant may be 433 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:04,119 Speaker 1: totally bankrupt judgment proof, so we want a judgment. I 434 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,919 Speaker 1: believe it was for two point seven billion dollars against 435 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: a nationwide debt relief scammer. We were able to make 436 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,600 Speaker 1: so many of those victims whole because of that victim's 437 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: Relief fund. So we're talking about something that has really 438 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: put money in the pockets of people across the country, 439 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:30,360 Speaker 1: and to suggest that it is something that is trying 440 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:36,120 Speaker 1: to do something outside of its laws. Look, I hate 441 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:41,040 Speaker 1: to say, you know, mister Musk Elon Musk, he has 442 00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:47,120 Speaker 1: stated they want twitter x to become essentially a bank, 443 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:52,119 Speaker 1: the ability to move and track payments across its platforms. 444 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,439 Speaker 1: And I think that it's reasonable for Americans to wonder 445 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 1: why is he targeting this little age. And I think 446 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,359 Speaker 1: a lot of the opposition is coming from tech conglomerates 447 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,320 Speaker 1: because it has been a little bit the agency has 448 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:15,920 Speaker 1: been a speed bump in their plans to conquer payments 449 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: in banking, and I think that that's Americans deserve to 450 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,639 Speaker 1: have their financial privacy, financial fraud. These are important laws 451 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,240 Speaker 1: on the books that we have to enforce, and we 452 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,639 Speaker 1: shouldn't just be enforcing it against banks. 453 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,000 Speaker 4: So the White House goes on, they say the CFPP 454 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 4: granted itself broad new powers in the waning hours of 455 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 4: the lame duck Biden administration, described as classic quote government overreach. 456 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,720 Speaker 4: The agency gave itself the authority to regulate Americans checking 457 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 4: accounts by dictating government price controls, and unilaterally buried fifty 458 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:50,640 Speaker 4: billion dollars in medical debt. 459 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:52,560 Speaker 5: Let's take those one by one. 460 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,119 Speaker 4: So when they say you're dictating government price controls, what 461 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 4: are they referring to there? 462 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:02,879 Speaker 1: So what I think is that there had been very 463 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: serious abuses across the marketplace. 464 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,199 Speaker 4: When it can just give you a hint if you 465 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:09,240 Speaker 4: click their link, its talks about overdraft. 466 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:16,719 Speaker 1: Yes, we uncovered a number of serious, serious wrongdoing on overdraft, 467 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: including manipulation of payment order and more. So, here's what 468 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:20,840 Speaker 1: we do. 469 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,119 Speaker 5: That's when they move the time that they. 470 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: Hit exactly, so instead of one overdraft fee, you might 471 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:27,520 Speaker 1: get three or four in a day. 472 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,399 Speaker 5: So they're calling that dictating price control. 473 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,920 Speaker 1: Well, here's what we did. We took a look at 474 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,679 Speaker 1: overdraft lending because you essentially it's a loan, and we 475 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: found that even if you were overdrawing thirty five cents, 476 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,200 Speaker 1: you might get hit with a thirty five dollars fee. 477 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 5: I've been there. 478 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:49,400 Speaker 1: So the original law says the following you got to 479 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: fully disclose the terms and conditions of loans. And what 480 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: we found is in nineteen sixty nine, the Federal Reserve 481 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: created a carve out for a specific set of circumstances. 482 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 1: It was when you were mailing paper checks through the 483 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 1: US Postal Service. Sometimes it was delayed, sometimes your paycheck 484 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: came later. And they said, you know, because you can't 485 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: really predict this the bank, you don't have to give 486 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: all these disclosures. You can just charge a reasonable fee. 487 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,760 Speaker 1: We then looked at today and now overdraft is overwhelmingly 488 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:28,160 Speaker 1: debit card purchases, and they're small purchases. So here's what 489 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:32,280 Speaker 1: we said. We said, let's update that exemption and say, 490 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,400 Speaker 1: in general, you got to fess up as to what 491 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,880 Speaker 1: the interest rate you're charging. Fully disclose that interest rate 492 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,400 Speaker 1: on the loans you're extending. But if you don't want 493 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: to do that, just charge a reasonable fee and will publish. 494 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,840 Speaker 1: We'll publish what that average is. So they don't have 495 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,600 Speaker 1: to they don't have to charge five dollars alow. If 496 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,560 Speaker 1: they want to, they want to keep making big money, 497 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: they can disclose the interest rate. We really thought of 498 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:07,680 Speaker 1: this as modernizing an outdated regulation and making sure that 499 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,280 Speaker 1: people are being upfront and honest about the interest rate 500 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:12,760 Speaker 1: they're charging on a loan. 501 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:18,000 Speaker 4: So's that's what the White House called dictating government price controls. 502 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:22,080 Speaker 4: Then they say unilaterally buried fifty billion. 503 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,160 Speaker 5: Dollars in medical debt. What do they mean by that? 504 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: Here's what I speculate. We did a multi year analysis, and. 505 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 4: If you hint by clicking of credit reports, midnight rule 506 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,600 Speaker 4: making from Liz Warren's favorite agency spells even more bad 507 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,480 Speaker 4: news for cash strapped Americans, the Daily Caller. 508 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty one, we completed a major analysis 509 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: of credit reports. It used to be that your credit report, 510 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:53,120 Speaker 1: the items that were in debt collection was largely credit cards. 511 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:58,680 Speaker 1: But something flipped and we found that debt collectors were 512 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: parking meta bills on people's credit report, and there were 513 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 1: very systemic issues with inaccuracy. Many people already paid it 514 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: or it was supposed to be paid by the insurance company. 515 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,240 Speaker 1: And after we published our analysis, the big credit reporting 516 00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 1: conglomerates immediately said, we're going to really take off most 517 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: of this. We also had evidence that it was not 518 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:28,720 Speaker 1: even predictive of your repayment on your auto loaner credit card. 519 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,120 Speaker 1: So we didn't want to just take volunteers for this. 520 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,640 Speaker 1: We said, you know what, the law actually prohibits medical 521 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:41,920 Speaker 1: information from appearing on credit reports. So we updated the 522 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:48,120 Speaker 1: rule to put serious limitations and essentially forbid the parking 523 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,680 Speaker 1: of these medical bills on the credit reports. It would 524 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 1: still include, for example, medical bills you paid on a 525 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: credit card, but the actual bills that you were stuck 526 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,160 Speaker 1: in the doom loop doing the insurance company, the hospital, 527 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 1: and others. We found that that was it was coercive. 528 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,400 Speaker 1: It was a way to coerce people into paying that 529 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 1: they don't owe. Now, of course, hospitals others, they still 530 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 1: have many other ways to collect. In some cases they 531 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: sue people. But we thought that that was a very 532 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: reasonable update to stop systemic abuses, and it was broadly supported, 533 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:26,960 Speaker 1: and we've seen states across the country enact their own 534 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: state laws to prohibit that abuse as well. 535 00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,000 Speaker 4: So my co host Emily couldn't be here for this, 536 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 4: but she wanted me to ask you about something that 537 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,920 Speaker 4: happened at CFPB before you got there, which is what 538 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:45,000 Speaker 4: and here's how she put it the CFPB. So she 539 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 4: does roeh agree with this assessment in the Washington Examiner. 540 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:50,280 Speaker 5: The CFPB did. 541 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 4: Play a key role, according to a report from the 542 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:56,959 Speaker 4: Fdiics Inspector General in the Obama era Operation Choke Point 543 00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 4: even more disturbing, For the past few years, the CFPP 544 00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:04,160 Speaker 4: has wielded its enforcement authority over housing discrimination to effectively 545 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 4: censor speech with which it degrees with which it disagrees. 546 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 4: Let's take them in two parts. One Operation Choke Point 547 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:17,200 Speaker 4: that was an effort, as I recall, by the FBI 548 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 4: to clamp down on gun trafficking by basically I think, 549 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 4: deed banking a bunch of arms dealers or something, but 550 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:27,800 Speaker 4: which of course then caught up a lot of people 551 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:33,680 Speaker 4: by citizens who were involved in selling weapons, which the 552 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,800 Speaker 4: right would say is, look, this is Second Amendment protected activity. 553 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,680 Speaker 4: So what was what's your understanding of what CFPB's role 554 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 4: was in Operation Chowpoint. 555 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:47,520 Speaker 1: I don't know, And what I recall was that this 556 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:52,000 Speaker 1: was a Justice Department operation, but there was really no 557 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 1: consumer law involved, and the CFPB can only really enforce 558 00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: those consumer laws. And I also understand that it was 559 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 1: a lot of business accounts. So as far as I know, 560 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,920 Speaker 1: the CFPB during that time was also worried about bank 561 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: account access, trying to make sure there is fair access 562 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,160 Speaker 1: to bank accounts. So I don't have all the details, 563 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,160 Speaker 1: but it would surprise me because consumer law is the 564 00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,840 Speaker 1: only thing the CFPP can really pursue when it comes 565 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,480 Speaker 1: to savings and checking accounts. 566 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 4: So what about wielding your enforcement authority over housing discrimination 567 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:30,040 Speaker 4: to sensor speech. 568 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,760 Speaker 1: I have really no clue where that allegation comes from. 569 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: I think it is possible when there are redlining cases, 570 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,480 Speaker 1: there's data that you take a look at as to 571 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,799 Speaker 1: where are people denying or not offering loans. And redlining 572 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,600 Speaker 1: is the concept where you may not even get an application, 573 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:59,320 Speaker 1: you just may refuse to even offer services or lending there. 574 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,560 Speaker 1: And it is true that in sometimes the cases do 575 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:10,280 Speaker 1: uncover documents that where the lender is using a lot 576 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,920 Speaker 1: of charged racial language. But that's not the violation itself. 577 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,040 Speaker 1: The violation is actually the red lining. 578 00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 4: So right, the speech proves that they're actually discriminating against it. 579 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 1: In some ways, the documents can show where there was 580 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:29,279 Speaker 1: blatant discrimination. 581 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 4: Got it, So the CPP might find out that, you know, 582 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:38,120 Speaker 4: black or Hispanic applicants are rejected at a much higher rate, 583 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,879 Speaker 4: and then find the executives using charge. 584 00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 1: Language about a specific applicant or about a specific neighborhood, 585 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,640 Speaker 1: and so as a bunch of backs together, I see, 586 00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: I see. But certainly a person's speech cannot trip thee 587 00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,239 Speaker 1: in any way trip that law. What trips the law 588 00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:02,480 Speaker 1: as denying or redlining based on a protected characteristic like 589 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,040 Speaker 1: religion or race. 590 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:05,960 Speaker 4: Let's talk for a minute about some of the good 591 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,399 Speaker 4: stuff that, from your perspective, Trump has done, because you're 592 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,880 Speaker 4: in an interesting position here in the sense that you 593 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,799 Speaker 4: came in first to the FTC as what I would 594 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,920 Speaker 4: say is one of the first FTC commissioners of this 595 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 4: new era, really trying to wield the Federal Trade Commissions 596 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:30,840 Speaker 4: of power on behalf of people against monopolies, against scam artists, 597 00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:33,719 Speaker 4: and since then you were doing it later obviously joined 598 00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,440 Speaker 4: by Lena Khan and Andrew Ferguson and other So a 599 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:43,200 Speaker 4: bipartisan not that they agree on everything, but a bipartisan 600 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,880 Speaker 4: sense that something's wrong here, and the populist wings of 601 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,680 Speaker 4: each party actually have more in common maybe than the 602 00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:53,680 Speaker 4: corporate wings of each party. So let's get together and 603 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,560 Speaker 4: block some of these murders and force some of these actions. 604 00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,560 Speaker 5: The FTC is still. 605 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,720 Speaker 4: Going kind of strong in that mode. You then left 606 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,680 Speaker 4: and go over to the CFP B, which is now 607 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:12,600 Speaker 4: just getting absolutely slaughtered by Trump. So it's this schizophrenic 608 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:14,920 Speaker 4: approach from the Trump administration, where on the one hand, 609 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:17,279 Speaker 4: there's good work being done at the FDC, on the 610 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:21,320 Speaker 4: other hand, they're dismissing all of these obvious good cases 611 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 4: against scam artists and saying that they're going to try 612 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:29,239 Speaker 4: to utterly completely eliminate the thing. So let's pick a 613 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,480 Speaker 4: couple things like, so Trump has talked about capping credit 614 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:33,520 Speaker 4: card interest rates. 615 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:35,520 Speaker 5: Where do you come down on that? 616 00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:40,920 Speaker 4: And where should the populace right it's come down on this? 617 00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:41,520 Speaker 5: Is this? 618 00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:44,960 Speaker 4: Should they understand the attack on the CFPB? Is that 619 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,239 Speaker 4: the essence of what Trump is doing? Or is there 620 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 4: upholding of the FTC's populism. Is that kind of who 621 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:52,319 Speaker 4: they are? What the heck is going on? 622 00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,319 Speaker 1: I think that's the jury is really out because on 623 00:37:56,400 --> 00:38:01,880 Speaker 1: one hand, like I mentioned before, you saw President Trump 624 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:07,840 Speaker 1: call out Jamie Diamond. You saw campaigning on capping credit 625 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:15,160 Speaker 1: card interest rates. That's totally in conflict with, not with 626 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:19,480 Speaker 1: defunding the Wall Street Police, And that's really what this 627 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:23,320 Speaker 1: seems to be happening to the CFPB. Again, the jury 628 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:27,920 Speaker 1: is out about which way it will turn out, But 629 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: it seems like right now a lot of the big 630 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:34,799 Speaker 1: tech companies are wielding a lot of control over some 631 00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,880 Speaker 1: of these pieces. But then let's see what happens at 632 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:42,880 Speaker 1: the FTC. I was part of that original bipartisan It 633 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:47,200 Speaker 1: was a three to two vote, two Democrats and a 634 00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:52,560 Speaker 1: Republican versus two Republicans voting out that big inn I 635 00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:57,279 Speaker 1: trust complaint against Facebook. Lena Khan came to the to 636 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:02,680 Speaker 1: the FTC really fix the complaint, to continue to prosecute it. 637 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:08,959 Speaker 1: The trial will occur, Google others will see. I think 638 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,520 Speaker 1: there is a lot of mixed messages across the board, 639 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,759 Speaker 1: and I think, to answer your question, yes, I think 640 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: we are seeing a lot more energy from across the 641 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:29,439 Speaker 1: ideological spectrum that is questioning abuse of power. Now there's 642 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:34,359 Speaker 1: also a strong corporate influence across the board. When I 643 00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:37,840 Speaker 1: got to the FTC Ryan in twenty eighteen, I was 644 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: really shocked and to see what I saw, it was 645 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,080 Speaker 1: hard to understand what planet people were that age. It 646 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:52,279 Speaker 1: was basically a dead fish. There was massive abuses, for 647 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: example in subprime mortgages, where the FTC really took a 648 00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:57,520 Speaker 1: back seat. 649 00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 5: There was still in twenty eighteen. 650 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,560 Speaker 1: Well, I was saying in the two thousand and eight era, 651 00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:09,880 Speaker 1: then you have opioids where there's enormous enormous abuses by 652 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,880 Speaker 1: a pharmaceutical industry where the FTC is sort of missing 653 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,799 Speaker 1: in action. And the thing that really got me was 654 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:22,880 Speaker 1: I had discovered that there was a policy, a bipartisan 655 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:31,520 Speaker 1: consensus over multiple administrations that made in USA fraud should 656 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:36,719 Speaker 1: not be penalized. So we had cases come in where 657 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:40,239 Speaker 1: they were ripping off the Maiden China label, ripping off 658 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:42,759 Speaker 1: the Maid in Mexico label, and putting on a fake 659 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: Maid in USA label, and the FTC's response was catch 660 00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:51,400 Speaker 1: and release. And I thought that that was a serial. 661 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: We changed that policy. We changed the policy toward pharmaceutical mergers, 662 00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 1: which was put on a blind, unfold rubber stamps and 663 00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: let them run wild. Obama too, right, I mean multiple administrations. 664 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,600 Speaker 1: So I think that that really was something that it 665 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:17,520 Speaker 1: needed a massive reboot. But we'll see, we'll really see 666 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:21,359 Speaker 1: right now if it does continue or not. And I 667 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:23,320 Speaker 1: think that is what all of us will have to 668 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,120 Speaker 1: keep a close watch on whether the big tech companies 669 00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:30,359 Speaker 1: in big pharma companies will be the ones that call 670 00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:31,200 Speaker 1: the shots or not. 671 00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:35,200 Speaker 4: Emily had also floated this thing that's going around on 672 00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:39,239 Speaker 4: the right. It's this idea that why not just move 673 00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:44,360 Speaker 4: the CFPB under the FTC. FTC is now doing some 674 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,960 Speaker 4: good consumer work. Let's just let's just go with that. 675 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,759 Speaker 1: Well, we tried that and it was a disaster. We 676 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,160 Speaker 1: had for other people say why don't we put it 677 00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,680 Speaker 1: under this office called the Office of the Comptroller of the. 678 00:41:58,680 --> 00:41:59,960 Speaker 5: Current Jamie Diamond said that. 679 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,719 Speaker 1: Through the occ we tried that, it was a massive failure. 680 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,640 Speaker 1: So what occurred after the financial crisis. We killed one 681 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:15,360 Speaker 1: of the agencies that failed, and we also which it 682 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,440 Speaker 1: was called the Office of Thrift Supervision, who was clearly 683 00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:24,680 Speaker 1: at the back end call of big subprime mortgage lenders 684 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:28,799 Speaker 1: who were paying the bills at the agency. So it 685 00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:34,840 Speaker 1: was in some ways a consolidation, a reorg plan, but 686 00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:36,880 Speaker 1: it was a smart one because what it did is 687 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,759 Speaker 1: it took it stripped away the authorities of some It 688 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:45,319 Speaker 1: eliminated an agency and eliminated divisions in certain places. But 689 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,480 Speaker 1: it created a huge amount of accountability because now you 690 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,440 Speaker 1: know there's an agency that was responsible. If you just 691 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,600 Speaker 1: park it somewhere else, it will just be a blame 692 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,280 Speaker 1: game of oh, it's someone else's problem. And we saw 693 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:03,359 Speaker 1: how much it just did not work. So look, I'm 694 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: always open of ways we can make things more effective. 695 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,880 Speaker 1: One way to make a lot of things more effective 696 00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:14,640 Speaker 1: is to make sure that our states can also enforce 697 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:19,760 Speaker 1: these laws. That's a place where people across the board agree. 698 00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: But I don't think hiding the function in an agency 699 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:29,080 Speaker 1: that has other responsibilities. Maybe that can work, but also 700 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:33,360 Speaker 1: it can really dilute accountability for that leadership. The Federal 701 00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:38,759 Speaker 1: Reserve Board, they were responsible for regulating a lot of 702 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:44,000 Speaker 1: the rules around mortgages. I think everyone saw that the Fed, 703 00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,600 Speaker 1: they were paying attention and prioritizing other things, and that's 704 00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:50,000 Speaker 1: why it needed to be stripped away. 705 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:53,319 Speaker 4: Now, what we're discovering is that it turns out that 706 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:57,600 Speaker 4: the market actually does want some rules. So if you 707 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:01,880 Speaker 4: can put up a seven here. This is a post 708 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 4: by Dave Dan referencing an article that he had written 709 00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:07,480 Speaker 4: in the American Prospect. 710 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:08,440 Speaker 5: He says, new from me. 711 00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,320 Speaker 4: Russ Vote, whose is the OMB director, was on the 712 00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,120 Speaker 4: verge of breaking the mortgage market by shutting down a 713 00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,920 Speaker 4: core function provided by CFPB. But he blinked and in 714 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,680 Speaker 4: so doing revealed that regulation is actually pretty important. So 715 00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,920 Speaker 4: what happened here CFPB eliminated all effectively eliminated all rules, 716 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,840 Speaker 4: and it wasn't the consumers that rebelled, it was the 717 00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:32,120 Speaker 4: mortgage lender. 718 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:34,280 Speaker 5: So what happened here, Well. 719 00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:36,399 Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what is going on over there, 720 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:41,040 Speaker 1: other than to say that we actually usually had all 721 00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:45,320 Speaker 1: of these regulated companies wanting us. They were the ones 722 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,520 Speaker 1: coming to us go after these companies that are clearly 723 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,359 Speaker 1: breaking the law. How are we supposed to compete if 724 00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:56,880 Speaker 1: there is agregious lawbreaking. But there was also other pieces, 725 00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:00,960 Speaker 1: which is, in some cases there are laws on the books, 726 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,759 Speaker 1: and the CFPB will publish data or other pieces of 727 00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:09,600 Speaker 1: information that helps the whole market comply and make sure 728 00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: they're on the right side of the law. And I 729 00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,440 Speaker 1: think what you saw there was just one example where 730 00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:18,040 Speaker 1: the mortgage lenders want to know the key pieces of 731 00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:21,279 Speaker 1: data they keep them on the right side of the law. 732 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:23,719 Speaker 1: One of the things I was proud of when I 733 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:29,200 Speaker 1: was at the agency is instead of forcing a lot 734 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,480 Speaker 1: of these companies, especially small companies, to hire all sorts 735 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:39,880 Speaker 1: of lawyers about novel situations, new types of products, we 736 00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:45,520 Speaker 1: just published the legal opinion and basically allowed any company 737 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:50,080 Speaker 1: to just rely on that and if they didn't agree 738 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,120 Speaker 1: with that, sure they could they could choose their own 739 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,640 Speaker 1: way of doing it, and maybe they'll take that risk, 740 00:45:56,320 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 1: but we really reduce the need to hire a lot 741 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:03,120 Speaker 1: of high priced lawyers. And I think that's actually what 742 00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:08,000 Speaker 1: government should do. Government shouldn't be serving the interests of 743 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:12,400 Speaker 1: the biggest companies. It should be providing information and in 744 00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:16,000 Speaker 1: many cases, bright line rules whenever it can, because that's 745 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:18,800 Speaker 1: what's simpler for the new folks who want to challenge 746 00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:22,560 Speaker 1: the corporate royalty. 747 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:28,000 Speaker 4: So after Trump's election, but I think before his inauguration, correctly, 748 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:30,320 Speaker 4: How'm wrong in the dates you spoke to the Federalist 749 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:34,440 Speaker 4: Society about the overlap between a kind of progressive consumer 750 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 4: protection philosophy and a conservative consumer protection philosophy. Would you 751 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:44,440 Speaker 4: have stayed on in a Trump administration if that had 752 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,799 Speaker 4: been a possibility, and did you think that it was 753 00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:50,200 Speaker 4: within the realm of possibility. 754 00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:54,040 Speaker 1: Well, as you remember, a lot of the big tech 755 00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:57,040 Speaker 1: companies in the banks were saying, he'll be out in 756 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,040 Speaker 1: minute one. I actually stayed a few more weeks, and 757 00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:05,560 Speaker 1: it was not because they forgot about me. I think 758 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:10,319 Speaker 1: I swore an oath to a five year term, and 759 00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,600 Speaker 1: I share that I'll keep serving until replaced, and I 760 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:18,680 Speaker 1: completely respect that in this agency, the president has the 761 00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:23,560 Speaker 1: right to choose now. I think this is a big 762 00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:30,440 Speaker 1: open question right now, is that is this agency going 763 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:35,719 Speaker 1: to be a tool of how the most powerful actors 764 00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,920 Speaker 1: keep their power, or is it going to continue on 765 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,000 Speaker 1: some of the things we did to make sure that 766 00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:46,760 Speaker 1: consumers have the ability to fire companies with bad customer 767 00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:50,600 Speaker 1: service and take their business elsewhere, that they can capture 768 00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:53,920 Speaker 1: interest rates on their deposit accounts, lower rates on their loans, 769 00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: and that there is not a crime ridden marketplace, that 770 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:03,160 Speaker 1: there is law and order, or is it just all 771 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:05,640 Speaker 1: going to be completely lawless, that. 772 00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:07,040 Speaker 5: They defund the police. 773 00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:09,840 Speaker 1: Well, in some ways that is what is happening. I 774 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:19,240 Speaker 1: think defunding and firing the investigators. Right now we're hearing 775 00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:23,239 Speaker 1: that all of the investigations against big companies for some 776 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:29,080 Speaker 1: serious wrongdoing are just being paused and they're being told 777 00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:33,640 Speaker 1: don't do any work. Who is that helping? I think 778 00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:38,680 Speaker 1: it is only helping the law breaking companies. 779 00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:40,760 Speaker 4: Also makes it hard for you to write your email 780 00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:44,160 Speaker 4: of what you did the last week if if you're 781 00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:45,160 Speaker 4: told not to do anything. 782 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,879 Speaker 5: I wanted to ask you about one of these though. 783 00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:52,520 Speaker 4: Russ Vote posted on x just the other day, the 784 00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:57,040 Speaker 4: announcement of basically the pulling back of an enforcement said 785 00:48:57,440 --> 00:48:59,960 Speaker 4: over the last four years, many working class Americans would 786 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:04,080 Speaker 4: limited means, faced unexpected medical bills, auto repairs, and higher 787 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,920 Speaker 4: grocery bills. This is Russ Fode, who's OWNB director and 788 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:10,600 Speaker 4: also appointed as the new head of the CFPB. One 789 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:13,560 Speaker 4: company set up an innovative solution by creating a platform 790 00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,960 Speaker 4: to allow borrowers and lenders to connect for loans at 791 00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:20,400 Speaker 4: no interest, with borrowers able to tip the lender and 792 00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:24,720 Speaker 4: also donate to keep the platform going. Shockingly, the CFPB 793 00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,800 Speaker 4: tried to destroy this company, which incurred solo, which incurred 794 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:31,360 Speaker 4: millions in legal fees, and had to lay off thirty 795 00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,560 Speaker 4: percent of its workforce. It was wrong and we dismissed 796 00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:37,400 Speaker 4: the case. More to come, but the weaponization of consumer 797 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:39,000 Speaker 4: protection must end. 798 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:39,839 Speaker 5: Now. 799 00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:41,960 Speaker 4: If people go to this x post, they can see 800 00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:44,000 Speaker 4: that there's a community note on it that has survived 801 00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,840 Speaker 4: attempts to try to strip it. But why would the 802 00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:51,560 Speaker 4: CPB try to destroy this company which is just trying 803 00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:56,560 Speaker 4: to for free connect people with lenders, connect struggling people 804 00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:58,080 Speaker 4: with willingness to lend. 805 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,239 Speaker 1: Well, as you mentioned, I believe there were as a 806 00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,560 Speaker 1: community note because this is a company that had been 807 00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:09,200 Speaker 1: repeatedly sanctioned by multiple state regulators and attorneys general, I believe, 808 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:13,160 Speaker 1: and in those cases, many of those states come to 809 00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: the CFPB and say, you have to solve this issue nationally. 810 00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:18,040 Speaker 5: We can't do that. 811 00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:20,480 Speaker 1: It can't just be a game of whack a mole. 812 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:27,400 Speaker 1: And I believe that law enforcement action was actually to 813 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:33,279 Speaker 1: address a sophisticated what's known as a dark pattern, a 814 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:38,720 Speaker 1: digital design device that forces you into something you don't want. 815 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:41,879 Speaker 1: And you can take a look at the complaint. They 816 00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,279 Speaker 1: make it seem like, oh, you can just tip, But 817 00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,840 Speaker 1: what if the tip is forced? What if the tip 818 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:54,000 Speaker 1: is actually just a disguised way to charge an exploitative 819 00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:57,759 Speaker 1: interest rate in violation of state law. So I think 820 00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:00,880 Speaker 1: that that's a a lot of people are going to 821 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:05,040 Speaker 1: look at this potential dismissal of where might there be 822 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:09,600 Speaker 1: some foul play because this is something that almost seemed 823 00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,520 Speaker 1: like a bread and butter case to many people. 824 00:51:12,400 --> 00:51:15,120 Speaker 5: Right like that, this is what the CFOB is set 825 00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:15,440 Speaker 5: up to do. 826 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:19,480 Speaker 4: It is a company says it's doing one thing allegation 827 00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:23,040 Speaker 4: or is doing something different walking away with all the money. 828 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:28,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're saying something is a no interest loan. 829 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:33,000 Speaker 1: But you're just disguising the interest charge, the triple digit 830 00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:37,279 Speaker 1: interest charge as a by another name. I mean, that's 831 00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:41,680 Speaker 1: really what it's kind of again, it's it's bread and 832 00:51:41,719 --> 00:51:44,720 Speaker 1: butter type fraud that the agency is supposed to go after. 833 00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,800 Speaker 4: And I know there was some hope among the banks 834 00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,839 Speaker 4: and major corporations that and M and A firms that 835 00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:52,719 Speaker 4: this would usher in an era Trump would usher in 836 00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:56,920 Speaker 4: an era of new mergers. Capital Want and Discover are 837 00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,760 Speaker 4: attempting to pull themselves together. 838 00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:03,120 Speaker 5: You critical of that? Do you think this will get stopped? 839 00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:07,799 Speaker 4: And why should any why should people watching this, you know, 840 00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,600 Speaker 4: give a rip if Capital Want and Discover merge. 841 00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:17,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, look right now, we have a situation where 842 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:22,120 Speaker 1: we remember inflation. Everyone was saying, well, inflation is going down, 843 00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,560 Speaker 1: inflation is going down. But the truth is is for 844 00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:31,520 Speaker 1: many people's monthly budgets, they felt that they were more 845 00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:37,280 Speaker 1: and more stressed. And something that inflation often doesn't measure 846 00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:41,480 Speaker 1: is interest rate costs, the costs that you have to 847 00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:44,719 Speaker 1: pay on your credit card, your auto loan, and your 848 00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:47,920 Speaker 1: mortgage and more. And we have a situation in credit 849 00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:53,200 Speaker 1: cards where there is a small almost click of credit 850 00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,759 Speaker 1: card companies that dominate the market. I mean, the top 851 00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:01,360 Speaker 1: six have a huge market share. And we saw interest 852 00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:06,320 Speaker 1: rates on credit cards surge way beyond what the FED 853 00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: raised rates and people are paying I think something like 854 00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:14,120 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty billion dollars in interest and fees 855 00:53:14,239 --> 00:53:18,440 Speaker 1: on their credit cards. If we had a competitive interest 856 00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:23,280 Speaker 1: rate n a credit card market where people were getting 857 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:28,520 Speaker 1: a rate that was really tailored to them, this could 858 00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:32,799 Speaker 1: be something that could save people, you know, hundreds of 859 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:35,920 Speaker 1: dollars and for some people thousands of dollars per year. 860 00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:43,200 Speaker 1: And some of these companies focus on subprime borrowers where 861 00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:47,360 Speaker 1: the highest rates are. So if you have a couple 862 00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:52,040 Speaker 1: of players consolidate down, the people who will pay the 863 00:53:52,160 --> 00:53:57,120 Speaker 1: price are those families. And I think that this is 864 00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:01,080 Speaker 1: not some academic question. It is really about are you 865 00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:04,719 Speaker 1: going to be put on a treadmill of debt or 866 00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:09,319 Speaker 1: are you going to get to benefit from a competitive marketplace. 867 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:14,160 Speaker 1: And we'll see what happens, but certainly we know the president, 868 00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:18,280 Speaker 1: there's people from all across the political spectrum who feel 869 00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:22,080 Speaker 1: that the credit card companies need to really be rained in. 870 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:24,160 Speaker 1: But again the jury is out. 871 00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:26,560 Speaker 4: I guess my last question for you then would be. 872 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:31,400 Speaker 4: There's this famous clip of FDR at one of his 873 00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:34,239 Speaker 4: I'm sure you know there's one of one of the 874 00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:39,960 Speaker 4: Democratic conventions where he says something like, you know, the 875 00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,320 Speaker 4: bank the bankers have decided that they hate me and 876 00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:47,120 Speaker 4: I and I welcome there their hatred. You seem like 877 00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:50,400 Speaker 4: the bankers and the big tech companies have decided they 878 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,840 Speaker 4: hate you. Do you welcome it or where do you 879 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,640 Speaker 4: come down on the I welcome there. 880 00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:59,160 Speaker 1: I don't take it personally, I feel like I get it. 881 00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:06,799 Speaker 1: There is there are folks that feel that law enforcement 882 00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:12,920 Speaker 1: and regulators shouldn't be a watchdog, they should be a 883 00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:18,280 Speaker 1: lap dog. They should be someone who bats their eyelashes 884 00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:23,480 Speaker 1: to meet with famous CEOs. And the truth is that's 885 00:55:23,640 --> 00:55:26,560 Speaker 1: not what we swear our oath to when we take 886 00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:31,520 Speaker 1: these jobs. It's very clear equal justice under the law 887 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:35,520 Speaker 1: that has got to mean something, And it doesn't matter 888 00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:40,200 Speaker 1: how powerful or connected you are. We're supposed to have 889 00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:45,960 Speaker 1: laws that afford rights to our people, and it is 890 00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:50,719 Speaker 1: up to those who sit in those offices to vindicate them. 891 00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:56,279 Speaker 1: And even if that means you will be subject to threats, harassment, 892 00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:02,319 Speaker 1: people following you, it stinks, but you just got to 893 00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:05,080 Speaker 1: do it because that's what that's what I think the 894 00:56:05,120 --> 00:56:08,520 Speaker 1: constitution and our laws want to see. And we see 895 00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:12,720 Speaker 1: we've seen when law enforcement and regulators do the bidding 896 00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:18,200 Speaker 1: of the powerful or those who break the law, none 897 00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:19,640 Speaker 1: of us really benefit from that. 898 00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:22,520 Speaker 4: Last last question, do you see hope in this moment? 899 00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:24,000 Speaker 4: And if so, where. 900 00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:30,520 Speaker 1: You know? I think that we are starting to see 901 00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:37,959 Speaker 1: places where there is a desire to hold powerful people accountable. 902 00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:43,080 Speaker 1: But we also see situations where the police and law 903 00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:47,560 Speaker 1: enforcement and regulators are being muzzled and censored and not 904 00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:50,479 Speaker 1: being able to do their jobs. So it's a jump 905 00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:51,319 Speaker 1: ball right now. 906 00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:54,759 Speaker 4: Maybe we can finish with a we can play that 907 00:56:54,840 --> 00:57:00,120 Speaker 4: clip of FDR at the DNC. But Roht, thank thank 908 00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:02,600 Speaker 4: you so much for coming by the studio. Appreciate it, 909 00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:03,160 Speaker 4: Thanks so much. 910 00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:09,920 Speaker 7: And we know now that government by organized money is 911 00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:14,480 Speaker 7: just as dangerous as government by organized mob. 912 00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:20,640 Speaker 6: No, I'm before in all our. 913 00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:27,240 Speaker 7: History have these papies being so united against one candidate 914 00:57:27,280 --> 00:57:31,880 Speaker 7: as they stand today. They are unanimous in the hate 915 00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:35,400 Speaker 7: for me, and I welcome their hatred. 916 00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:49,680 Speaker 9: I should like to have it said of my first 917 00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:55,920 Speaker 9: administration that in it the pauses of pupiousness and the 918 00:57:56,120 --> 00:57:56,640 Speaker 9: love for. 919 00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:01,360 Speaker 7: Power Meta Matt, I should like to have it said, 920 00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:05,439 Speaker 7: Wait a minute, I should like to have it said 921 00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:10,120 Speaker 7: of my second administration that in it these offices mess 922 00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:10,880 Speaker 7: their master