My latest article in The Hill, co-written with my friend Tom Vartanian, challenges the amount of power that the Director of the CFPB, an unelected official, can wield. Having a politicized official at the helm of this agency will do the American consumer more harm than good.
From the article:
In an obviously coordinated effort with the White House against what the president has popularly labeled “junk fees,” the CFPB reduced the allowable cap on credit card late payment fees from $32 to $8. But don’t get fooled into thinking that you will save $24 each time you pay your credit card bill late, or that it is now easier to skip a payment altogether.
An opinion we co-authored last year explained — apparently unsuccessfully — how such economic virtue signaling ends up hurting the people who need credit the most. The analysis is simple: If government rules arbitrarily prevent lenders from recouping the cost of making credit available to poor credit risks — i.e., borrowers who don’t pay on time — they won’t make the loan and there will be no late fees to worry about.
Read the full article here.