[Plura-list] The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD

Cory Doctorow doctorow at craphound.com
Mon Jun 10 09:28:24 EDT 2024 

Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/

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On June 20th, I'll be in Oakland, CA to keynote the Locus Awards:

https://locusmag.com/2024-locus-awards-weekend/

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Today's links

* The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD: Fighting corporate crime with both fists and 7-2 SCOTUS backing.

* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

* This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023

* Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.

* Recent appearances: Where I've been.

* Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.

* Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.

* Colophon: All the rest.

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🐋 The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD

Let's take a sec here and notice something *genuinely great* happening in the US government: the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's stunning, unbroken streak of *major*, muscular victories over the forces of corporate corruption, *with* the backing of the Supreme Court (yes, *that* Supreme Court), and which is only speeding up!

A little background. The CFPB was created in 2010. It was Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, an institution that was supposed to regulate finance from the perspective of the American public, not the American finance sector. Rather than fighting to "stabilize" the financial sector (the mission that led to Obama taking his advisor Timothy Geithner's advice to permit the foreclosure crisis to continue in order to "foam the runways" for the banks), the Bureau would fight to defend us from bankers.

The CFPB got off to a rocky start, with challenges to the unique system of long-term leadership appointments meant to depoliticize the office, as well as the sudeen resignation of its inaugural boss, who broke his promise to see his term through in order to launch an unsuccessful bid for political office.

But after the 2020 election, the Bureau came into its own, when Biden poached Rohit Chopra from the FTC and put him in charge. Chopra went on a *tear*, taking on landlords who violated the covid eviction moratorium:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

Then banning payday lenders' scummiest tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

Then striking at one of fintech's most predatory grifts, the "earned wage access" hustle:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

Then closing the loophole that let credit reporting bureaus (like Equifax, who doxed every single American in a spectacular 2019 breach) avoid regulation by creating data brokerage divisions and claiming they weren't part of the regulated activity of credit reporting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Chopra went on to promise to ban data-brokers *altogether*:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/#material-misstatement

Then he banned comparison shopping sites where you go to find the best bank accounts and credit cards from accepting bribes and putting more expensive options at the top of the list. Instead, he's requiring banks to send the CFPB regular, accurate lists of all their charges, and standing up a federal operated comparison shopping site that gives only accurate and honest rankings. Finally, he's made an interoperability rule requiring banks to let you transfer to another institution with one click, just like you change phone carriers. That means you can search an honest site to find the best deal on your banking, and then, with a single click, transfer your accounts, your account history, your payees, and all your other banking data to that new bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

Somewhere in there, big business got *scared*. They cooked up a legal theory declaring the CFPB's funding mechanism to be unconstitutional and got the case fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, in a bid to put Chopra and the CFPB permanently out of business. Instead, the Supremes - *these Supremes!* - upheld the CFPB's funding mechanism in a *7-2 ruling*:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/05/supreme-court-lets-cfpb-funding-stand/

That ruling was a starter pistol for Chopra and the Bureau. Maybe it seemed like they were taking big swings before, but it turns out all that was just a warmup. Last week on *The American Prospect*, Robert Kuttner rounded up all the stuff the Bureau is kicking off:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-07-window-on-corporate-deceptions/

First: regulating Buy Now, Pay Later companies (think: Klarna) as credit-card companies, with all the requirements for disclosure and interest rate caps dictated by the Truth In Lending Act:

https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2024/06/cfpb-applies-credit-card-rules

Next: creating a registry of habitual corporate criminals. This rogues gallery will make it harder for other agencies - like the DOJ - and state Attorneys General to offer bullshit "delayed prosecution agreements" to companies that compulsively rip us off:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-creates-registry-to-detect-corporate-repeat-offenders/

Then there's the rule against "fine print deception" - which is when the fine print in a contract lies to you about your rights, like when a mortgage lender forces you waive a right you can't actually waive, or car lenders that make you waive your bankruptcy rights, which, again, you can't waive:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-warns-against-deception-in-contract-fine-print/

As Kuttner writes, the common thread running through all these orders is that they ban deceptive practices - they make it illegal for companies to steal from us by lying to us. Especially in these dying days of class action suits - rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to "mandatory arbitration waivers" that make you sign away your right to join a class action - agencies like the CFPB are our only hope of punishing companies that lie to us to steal from us.

There's a *lot* of bad stuff going on in the world right now, and much of it - including an active genocide - is coming from the Biden White House.

But there are people in the Biden Administration who care about the American people and who are effective and committed fighters who have our back. What's more, they're *winning*. That doesn't make all the bad news go away, but sometimes it feels *good* to take a moment and take the W.

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🐋 Hey look at this

* Philip K. Dick, The Last Ten Years: A Conversation Between a Dark-Haired Girl and Tim Powers https://user.well.com/engaged.cgi?t=546&c=inkwell.vue&f=0 (h/t Wagner James Au)

* Toronto Games Week https://torontogamesweek.com/

* Economic Termites Are Everywhere https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/economic-termites-are-everywhere

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🐋 This day in history

#15yrsago Student challenges prof, wins right to post source code he wrote for course https://memex.craphound.com/2009/06/10/student-challenges-prof-wins-right-to-post-source-code-he-wrote-for-course/

#15yrsago France’s three-strikes copyright rule is unconstitutional and hence dead https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2009/06/10/hadopi-is-dead-three-strikes-killed-by-highest-court/

#15yrsago The Brain that Changes Itself: hopeful book on the science of neuroplasticity https://memex.craphound.com/2009/06/10/the-brain-that-changes-itself-hopeful-book-on-the-science-of-neuroplasticity/

#10yrsago National anti-censorship orgs protest cancellation of Little Brother summer reading program https://ncac.org/incident/little-brother-pensacola

#10yrsago Piketty’s inherited-wealth dystopia: private capital millionaires multiply https://www.bbc.com/news/business-27774753

#10yrsago How Heinlein went from socialist to right-wing libertarian https://newrepublic.com/article/118048/william-pattersons-robert-heinlein-biography-hagiography

#10yrsago Whistleblower org says it will go to jail rather than turning over its keys https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/to-defeat-encryption-feds-deploy-the-subpoena/

#10yrsago Texas school bans sunscreen because a child might drink it https://web.archive.org/web/20140608074518/http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/san-antonioarea-school-district-do-not-bring-sunscreen-school-18590.shtml

#10yrsago Small town sheriff buys tank: “the United States of America has become a war zone” https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/06/07/police-officer-safety-surplus-zeal-military-equipment-spurs-debate-mrap-military-vehicle/10170225/

#5yrsago A grandmother is suing the TSA for strip searching her to get a look at her panty liner, on Mother’s Day https://professional-troublemaker.com/2019/06/06/tsa-strip-searches-grandmother-on-mothers-day-for-over-feminine-hygiene-product-gets-sued/

#5yrsago A trove of leaks show that Brazil’s “anti-corruption” task force was secretly trying to oust Lula and install a far-right strongman https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-archive-operation-car-wash/

#5yrsago Americans are too poor to survive whether or not they’re working https://eand.co/half-of-americans-are-effectively-poor-now-what-the-c944c518db6a

#5yrsago Competition can fix Big Tech, but only if we don’t make “bigness” a legal requirement https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/06/06/regulating-big-tech-makes-them-stronger-so-they-need-competition-instead?fsrc=gp_en?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/regulatingbigtechmakesthemstrongersotheyneedcompetitioninsteadopenvoices

#5yrsago Weekend SIM-swapping blitz targets US cryptocurrency holders https://www.zdnet.com/article/wave-of-sim-swapping-attacks-hit-us-cryptocurrency-users/

#5yrsago The NRA begs gun nuts for donations, spends lavishly on its board of directors and execs https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nra-money-flowed-to-board-members-amid-allegedly-lavish-spending-by-top-officials-and-vendors/2019/06/09/3eafe160-8186-11e9-9a67-a687ca99fb3d_story.html

#5yrsago On Grenfell’s second anniversary, 60,000 Britons are still living in firetraps clad in the same deadly, decorative materials https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/grenfell-tower-fire-material-high-rise-buildings-flat-block-a8946276.html

#1yrago Links, dumped https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/10/in-the-dumps-2/#do-the-humpty-dump

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🐋 Upcoming appearances

* Locus Awards keynote (Oakland), Jun 20
https://locusmag.com/2024-locus-awards-weekend/

* HOPE XV, Jul 14 (Queens, NY)
https://www.hope.net/talks.html

* American Association of Law Libraries keynote, (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/

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🐋 Recent appearances

* Capitalist Realism vs. Science Fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz-iHWzqGK0

* All Tech is Human
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKThzsYGjEQ

* RISD Debates in AI keynote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdSEcmplaDs

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🐋 Latest books

* The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

* "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

* "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

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🐋 Upcoming books

* Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

* Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

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🐋 Colophon

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

* Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay. Today's progress:  words ( words total).

* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025

* Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

* Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

Latest podcast:
  Against Lore https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_469/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_469_-_Against_Lore.mp3

This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
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