The Time for the CFPB to Stop Merely Keeping Up Appearances Is Long Overdue

The cost-of-living keeps rising.

Following years of inflation, consumers are the ones shouldering the majority of the economic burdens, in a way we haven’t seen for decades.

With prices rising nearly as much as the 10 years preceding the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans are now resorting to credit just to pay for daily living expenses.

Meanwhile, the so-called top government consumer agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to stand in consumers’ way.

Goods and services now cost, on average, over 17% more than they did in January of 2021, hitting every U.S. consumer right in the wallet.

A recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Expectations found that the ability of an average household to come up with $2,000 to cover an unexpected expense hit a 10-year low.

In fact, a majority of American workers said they could not even pay an emergency expense of $500 or more.

At the same time, U.S. consumers are growing increasingly pessimistic about their ability to access most forms of credit.

A new survey by the American Financial Services Association (AFSA) shows consumer credit conditions have deteriorated in the first quarter of 2024.

All of this begs the question of what the CFPB is doing to ease consumers’ pain.

The sad reality is they are actually aligned in making it worse.

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