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the way US bureacrats envision regulation is wrong imo.

They only increase cost of doing business and add overhead on the consumer (one more document to sign that nobody reads, when closing a loan).

I really dont understand what these 1700 people accomplish productive every day to justify the agency's existence.

If they are doing something manual, this ought to be automated. If they are manually enforcing something - this ought to be encoded in laws and should not require post-hoc enforcement.




From the article:

"Supporters highlight its work to penalize large companies, including banks, for allegedly mistreating clients — with the bureau claiming in 2023 that it had restored $17.5 billion to Americans over the previous 12 years “in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief.”

Last year, the CFPB finalized a rule capping credit card late payment fees at $8 — down from an average of $32 — which it estimated would save consumers $14 billion per year."

Considering the US citizens their shareholders, I would like to see how many private organisations of that size have such an impact in just 12 years.


Assuming that $14 billion figure is accurate (and it may not be!), it looks to me like this group of 1700 people costing the taxpayer about $200k each saved the taxpayer about $8.2 million per year for each employee, or an ROI of 4000%.

But yeah, it's a waste, let's shut it down.


CFPB's budget[1] was $500 mln 12 years ago and now is $900 mln, lets take average $700 mln over 12 year = $8.4 bln just cash outlay

I highly doubt $14 bln is accurate, but even if it is, its only 70% over their carrying cost.

as a hiring manager in private sector, in order to justify headcount, the benefit must exceed 3x the carrying cost of an employee.

to hire $100k person, I must prove $300k benefit to the company at very least, and 5x benefit is more appreciated by management.

doesnt look like a good return at all honestly

  1. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48295/2


That was a single example of their value.




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