Topline
Earth’s richest person Elon Musk, President-Elect Donald Trump’s cost-cutting czar, identified a fresh federal government enemy: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a relatively new agency created following the Great Recession.
Key Facts
Musk posted “Delete CFPB” to his social media website X early Wednesday, referring to the bureau, whose self-described mission is to ensure “markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive,” most notably targeting financial institutions involved in credit card and payment processing.
“There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” added Musk, who Trump tapped earlier this month to co-lead the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency,” an independent commission designed to trim federal government spending and headcount.
Musk’s post was in response to a recent podcast clip from Marc Andreessen, billionaire venture capitalist and fellow multimillion-dollar Trump donor, who said the CFPB’s primary purpose is to “terrorize financial institutions” (Yahoo Finance reporter Jordan Weissmann notes the CFPB shut down a portfolio company of Andreessen’s firm a16z in 2021).
Key Background
Established in 2011 as part of the Dodd-Frank act revamping federal financial regulations following the financial crisis, the CFPB is a watchdog of companies offering financial products to everyday Americans, collecting some $20 billion in consumer relief funds. Project 2025, the federal government agenda published by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and penned by several members of Trump’s incoming administration, had a section devoted to the CFPB, calling for Congress to “abolish” the “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable federal agency.” The CFPB had a budget of about $760 million in the government’s 2024 fiscal year ending in September. Trump and Congressional Republicans are looking to limit the CFPB’s power with a unified government as part of a broader regulatory rollback, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The CFPB was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who touted the idea of a “Financial Product Safety Commission” in 2007 and remains influential in the Democrat-led federal government’s oversight of financial technology and services.
Chief Critic
“The CFPB is here to stay,” Warren told the Post last week, adding, “there’s big talk, but the laws supporting the CFPB are strong.”
Big Number
More than 75%. That’s how many of the federal government’s more than 400 agencies Musk wants to cut. Much of Musk’s trimming plans center on limiting regulatory agencies like the CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk’s net worth at $322.1 billion.
Further Reading
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