The Consumer "Protection" Racket
Heavens to Betsy! With the Republicans up in arms about Obama's recent recess appointments, it seems many of his critics are missing the bigger picture. There are good reasons to oppose any President's power to simply appoint whomever he wants to whatever tax-feeding agency he wants. However, what Congress should be scrutinizing even more closely is the very existence of the agencies themselves. In this case, there is all sorts of hoopla about the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the newly created "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau". I don't know much of anything about Richard Cordray - short of the fact he looks like Kenneth Parcell from "30 Rock" - and I don't need to in order to see the danger behind the new powers being given to this agency.
What I find most disturbing about this agency is that it is not created by Congress, nor will it be overseen by Congress or even the Administrative branch itself. No, this agency will operate solely within the confines of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve system. Not only that, but it will not even by funded through Congressional appropriations; instead it will be funded directly through the profits Federal Reserve makes off of interest payments from the U.S. Government debt it holds. "Profits", you say? "Why does the bank that issues our currency makes profits?" That's a damn good question, and I highly recommend watching this video we recently posted explaining how the Federal Reserve system works. The short version: The Federal Reserve makes up pieces of paper called dollars, the U.S Government makes up pieces of paper called bonds and sell them to the Federal Reserve in exchange for dollars, and then they tax the people to pay the interest on those dollars. Sound crazy? IT IS.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, was created by the Dodd-Frank regulatory bill in 2010, with the stated intention of protecting consumers from the evil banks and credit card companies that are screwing them. But this is like hiring a pack of wolves to guard the henhouse. The Federal Reserve IS the bank of all banks. The Federal Reserve through it's money printing is what is doing the most damage to consumers, resulting in record high food prices and skyrocketing energy prices. But since we are legally forced to use these dollars for every financial transaction, the consumer is forced to pay more and more dollars for the products they need as the Federal Reserve continues to print money in order to pay for everything from multiple wars to never-ending corporate bailouts and everything in between. And yet this is the organization that is supposed to "protect" the consumer? Sounds a lot more like the kind of protection one gets from families with the last name "Gambino" or "Soprano".
And much like with the "Sopranos", there's no way this is going to end well. The CFPB has the power to regulate not only banks, but also any other entity which the government determines offers a financial product. This vague definition opens a pandora's box of potential unchecked regulations the CFPB may impose on the average consumer. The government already makes it extremely difficult for all but the wealthiest people and business to invest and function with regulation like Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank. Now the CFPB will be around to pry into any area it deems under it's purview. The CFPB will ultimately encourage Americans to only use financial products which have received the official stamp of approval from the unaccountable bureau. We've seen what the Federal Reserve is capable of with it's money printing - a recent audit revealed over $16 Trillion in secret bailouts, much of which went to foreign banks. One can only imagine what kind of damage another unaccountable agency operating within it's structure can cause, as even regulations with the most noble of intentions have unintended consequences. And at this point, it would be a bit of a stretch to believe that those that operate the Federal Reserve and the banking institutions it benefits are anything close to noble.Placing trust in government never seems to work out for the little guy. People trusted in the SEC to protect them from fraud; meanwhile Bernie Madoff steals millions from investors as the SEC ignores the warnings. Generations of citizens trust the government to protect their retirement funds in the form of social security; meanwhile it spends away all of it's funds and threatens to cut off seniors if we don't go into greater debt, all the while lessening the value of those Social Security payments through inflation of the currency.Nothing can protect the consumer more than the letting the market work. In a free market, companies that serve their customers rise and prosper, while companies that don't fail. In a world where the Federal Reserve controls markets, bad institutions like Goldman Sachs get to stay afloat (and fund some of our top Presidential candidates ) while the consumer gets stuck with the bill in the form of higher prices and a stymied economy. The CFPB is poised to be just another step in the increase of power for the government, and conversely less power for the consumer. The only ones being "protected" will be those that pull our financial purse strings.Protection, indeed.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
