Elon Musk recently posted that he’d like to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If you haven’t heard of the CFPB, but you’re a consumer who spends money in America, it’s worth knowing a bit about what it does, why President-elect Donald Trump's allies want to get rid of it and what’s technically possible under federal law.
The CFPB — created to protect consumers from predatory and abusive practices in the financial sector — has drawn Republicans' ire since it was signed into law in 2010. It now has the attention of Musk, a co-leader of Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" — a nongovernmental group created to help “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," according to his statement.
