Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced that Trump's gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cost Americans $26.5 billion. Not $26 billion. Not $27 billion. $26.5 billion exactly.
Someone sat in an office and calculated this to the hundred-million. They used spreadsheets. They cross-referenced enforcement actions that didn't happen with consumer complaints that went nowhere. They assigned dollar values to abstract concepts like "regulatory deterrence" and "compliance gaps." Then they published a number with a decimal point so you'd think it was science.
The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from predatory lending. Trump's team spent four years turning it into a suggestion box. They dropped investigations. They softened rules on payday lenders. They let banks charge whatever they wanted for whatever they wanted.
Now Warren says that cost you $26.5 billion collectively. Which breaks down to about $80 per American. You didn't notice $80 missing because it was stolen in $3 overdraft fees and 0.25% APR increases on loans you can't afford anyway.
Retail traders will read this headline and feel nothing. They'll lose $80 on a meme stock by lunch and call it tuition. They'll pay $12.99 for another trading course that teaches them to buy high and sell low with confidence. They'll blame the market maker, the hedge fund, the algorithm, the Senator, anyone but themselves.
The CFPB could have unlimited funding and enforcement power and these people would still wire their savings to a guy named CryptoKing74 because he posted a rocket emoji.
Warren's number is probably right. It's also completely useless. You can't miss money you never knew you had, and you can't protect people who think protection is for cowards.
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
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