Obama Extorting Auto Lenders, CFPB Memos Prove
In 2015, The CFPB claims to have “statistical evidence” showing car lenders and dealers marking up loan prices for minorities vs. whites. But lenders and dealers insist that neutral factors such as credit history and rate-shopping explain any racial disparities in loan pricing.
TRUTH: Auto data don’t even include the applicant’s race. So investigators use surnames to identify their ethnicity. Such “proxies” are notoriously unreliable and lead to over-counting of “victims.”
ADMISSION: “Although there may be some risk of overestimating disparities, the alternative presents an equal (and perhaps greater) risk of underestimating disparities and thus consumer harm,” stated CFPB Assistant Director Patrice Ficklin
CFPB’s complaints portal may be riddled with errors
According to current and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials interviewed by American Banker, the agency’s consumer complaints portal may be riddled with errors and distrusted even by some CFPB employees.
TRUTH: In one example cited, a single complaint was counted as 35 different ones. In another, the agency noted a complaint against a bank when the consumer was in fact complaining about an unrelated payday lender.
ADMISSION: Complaints are filed by consumers as narratives. When the CFPB reviews the complaint, it creates a separate entry for any entity named in the consumer’s filing, even though some can be mentioned as incidental or uninvolved players in the complaint. There is a huge margin for abuse.
When a government agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is created by Congress, one would expect that a few consumers could actually receive protection, but that hasn’t been the case with this agency’s track record of mismanagement, inefficiency and waste. The CFPB has been operating for four years now and if it were a sports team, its coach, Richard Cordray, would certainly be looking for work. It’s power that has been unchecked.
TRUTH: The very agency charged with protecting minorities is itself facing charges of racial discrimination. A number of CFPB employees testified before Congress about CFPB’s hostile workplace environment. Employees offered examples of mistreatment, discrimination and fear of reprisal for voicing objections. Lawmakers received reports of how black employees were constantly belittled and even racially stereotyped during agency sponsored events.
ADMISSION: Some union members claim Chapter President Rob Cauldwell — an examiner for the bureau’s Southeast region based in Jacksonville, Fla. — is undermining their position, supporting management to the detriment of workers, sharing sensitive emails with CFPB officials and keeping the board and other union representatives in the dark, according to the resignation letters of the two former board members, and the letter signed by 45 employees. Is the CFPB capable of following the law?
The CFPB as a political machine
What did the CFPB do with the $80 million fine under Cordray’s leadership? Rather than improve its internal systems to identify victims, the CFPB gave the money away to various organizations that work with low-income and minority borrowers. The list of organizations receiving money from CFBP reads like a, “Who’s Who” of powerful left-wing activist groups. It’s likely no coincidence that these same groups receiving money from CFPB pushed for the agency’s creation in the first place.
TRUTH: It’s buying it’s support by extorting businesses and arbitrarily giving it away.
