Donald Trump’s Election Was the End of Neoliberalism

Finally, a genuine populist has arrived in the White House to destroy the neoliberal consensus:

Mick Mulvaney, who also continues to serve as White House budget director, said a few weeks ago he’d halt CFPB business for 30 days while getting his bearings.

But that hasn’t stopped him from quietly making a change to the wording that appears at the bottom of bureau press releases and announcements — a change that reveals the scope of the decidedly more business-friendly agency Mulvaney envisions.

First, here’s what used to appear on all CFPB press releases, before Mulvaney showed up:

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.”

Note the emphasis on enforcing rules and empowering consumers. Is it any wonder the banking industry has been at war with the bureau since its establishment in 2011?

Here’s what you’ll now find:

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations, by making rules more effective, by consistently enforcing federal consumer financial law and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.”

The emphasis clearly has shifted to “identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations” before any consideration of enforcement or consumer empowerment.

In other words, this is an agency more interested in getting rid of rules than in making sure rules are followed.

Oh, and check out the conspicuous dropping of the word “fairly” in the new language. No longer are regulations being “fairly enforced.”

OK, but could you imagine in your wildest dreams the Democrat Party creating a consumer protection agency and staffing it with people who wanted to protect consumers? Hillary totally would have appointed Mulvaney right after she ripped up the Iran deal and finished personally delivering all of the uranium in the United States to Vladimir Putin.

To put it another way:

If putting an impulsive, irresponsible, corrupt, egomaniacal racist in charge of your party doesn’t change the policy agenda at all what does that tell you?

— Subscribe to My Newsletter (@mattyglesias) December 23, 2017