Crypto Critics' Corner

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Episode 164 – CFPB RIP 🪦

CFPB RIP 🪦 – Crypto Critics' Corner

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey discuss the deteriorating situation in the United States, including the gutting of the CFPB and the attack on the full faith and credit of the United States.Read more here.Previous episodes mentioned in this episode:Episode 160 – CBDCs are Dead; Long Live $TRUMPEpisode 163 – What the Elon Musk coup means for FinanceAdditional Resources:Bloomberg Reporting on the DOGE takeover of CFPBBloomberg reporting on Pam Bondi memoReporting on threat of US defaultThis episode was recorded on February 10th, 2025.

Cas Piancey and Bennett Tomlin discuss the deteriorating situation in the United States, including the gutting of the CFPB and the attack on the full faith and credit of the United States.

This podcast was recorded on February 10th, 2025.

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English Transcript:

00:00:05:02 - 00:00:11:07
Cas Piancey
Welcome back everyone. I am Cas Piancey and I'm joined, as usual by my partner in crime, Mr. Bennett Tomlin. How are you today?

00:00:11:07 - 00:00:13:10
Bennett Tomlin
Oh, I'm doing okay. How are you, Cas?

00:00:13:10 - 00:00:14:07
Cas Piancey
It's another day.

00:00:14:07 - 00:00:21:07
Cas Piancey
So we're we're doing another one of these, shorter episodes because, as usual, there's just an incredible amount of bullshit going on these days.

00:00:21:07 - 00:00:26:14
Cas Piancey
And we've we are going to start by talking about the Cfpb.

00:00:26:14 - 00:00:31:06
Cas Piancey
For anyone who is unfamiliar, that is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

00:00:31:06 - 00:00:33:09
Cas Piancey
I believe it was started in 2008.

00:00:33:09 - 00:00:34:15
Cas Piancey
Am I getting that right?

00:00:34:15 - 00:00:48:15
Bennett Tomlin
I don't know if that's the right ear. It was an Elizabeth Warren Initiative post. Great financial crisis. When it became obvious that it was not going to be possible to get the political will to kind of harmonize and make reasonable our current,

00:00:48:15 - 00:01:10:12
Bennett Tomlin
financial regulator status. Elizabeth Warren, as well as a few other of like the people in that kind of coalition, came together to get a bill passed that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which more than the other financial regulators was supposed to focus on, like things directly impacting consumers of financial products, junk fees, access to the products.

00:01:10:16 - 00:01:21:22
Bennett Tomlin
The banking has been a big issue for them over the last few years. And when they say bad banking, they mean more like sex workers and immigrants rather than crypto companies, which has caused problems. And we'll get to that.

00:01:21:22 - 00:01:35:14
Bennett Tomlin
so they focused on like consumer issues. They've gone after a bunch of junk fees, gotten a couple settlements related to like, things like that, and have largely been an effective regulator, bringing in far more in fines than like has been appropriate to them by Congress.

00:01:35:14 - 00:01:41:01
Cas Piancey
I want to add on to that, which is like, I don't I. You don't hear people complaining about the Cfpb.

00:01:41:06 - 00:01:43:05
Bennett Tomlin
Except for crypto guys.

00:01:43:05 - 00:01:44:21
Bennett Tomlin
And Elon Musk.

00:01:44:21 - 00:01:45:20
Cas Piancey
And Elon Musk.

00:01:45:20 - 00:01:57:22
Cas Piancey
But normal people I think are generally have a very good if they have if they've even heard of the Cfpb, they generally have a pretty good opinion of it. It is not known as some waste filled horrible

00:01:57:22 - 00:02:07:13
Cas Piancey
bureaucracy like that has like the if we want to talk about waste in America, the DoD probably is spiraling out of control when it comes to costs.

00:02:07:18 - 00:02:16:02
Cas Piancey
But if we want to talk about like things that benefit most people, I don't really see how shutting down the Cfpb, which is what they are now doing,

00:02:16:02 - 00:02:17:06
Cas Piancey
it is being shut down.

00:02:17:06 - 00:02:19:09
Cas Piancey
Employees are locked out of offices.

00:02:19:09 - 00:02:21:08
Cas Piancey
They're being told like, don't come back.

00:02:21:08 - 00:02:23:03
Cas Piancey
it's essentially this massive,

00:02:23:03 - 00:02:27:11
Cas Piancey
agency that is designed to help people like me and you,

00:02:27:11 - 00:02:31:00
Cas Piancey
is being shut down by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and I don't know why.

00:02:31:00 - 00:02:47:11
Bennett Tomlin
Yeah. Well, there are perhaps some reasons why. And some of those reasons are like Elon Musk went slightly fewer barriers between x.com becoming like a payment service. And this is potentially a barrier that was in his way. And so he just removed the barrier.

00:02:47:11 - 00:02:58:14
Bennett Tomlin
There's also the fact that the CFP, c the CFPB, sorry, is sometimes a boogeyman in cryptocurrency conspiracy theories about deep banking.

00:02:58:16 - 00:03:20:22
Bennett Tomlin
It seems misdirected. It seems if they're mad at anyone, they're actually mad at the FDIC, who issued like some unofficial warnings about the amount of crypto some people had on their books, but they direct it at the CFP sometimes, and that seems to have poisoned Elon Musk's brain. But we should pause for a second and just kind of give the overview here.

00:03:21:00 - 00:03:33:23
Bennett Tomlin
So Friday Elon Musk tweeted CFPB R.I.P. Then there was the message that went out this weekend, which told all CFP employees if they had to work, don't come into the office, do remote work. And then

00:03:33:23 - 00:03:38:18
Bennett Tomlin
yesterday or this morning, there was the other letter that went out and told them to stop all work.

00:03:38:18 - 00:03:42:05
Bennett Tomlin
We've also learned that some of the Doge goons specifically

00:03:42:05 - 00:03:46:04
Bennett Tomlin
Gavin Kliger, Luke Farritor, Nikhil Rajpal, and Jordan Wick

00:03:46:04 - 00:03:47:20
Bennett Tomlin
were sent into the CFPB.

00:03:47:21 - 00:04:16:13
Bennett Tomlin
Initially had read only access to some of these systems, but were later given administrative access and have been empowered to take broad latitude in changing like the. IT systems at CFPB. And perhaps more importantly, one of the the CFPB is kind of a bank regulator. It's not one of the main bank regulators, but one of their roles is to do examinations of large banks.

00:04:16:14 - 00:04:25:11
Bennett Tomlin
And so among the records that these Doge men got access to were the bank examinations of a whole bunch of like, greater than $10 billion banks.

00:04:25:11 - 00:04:39:16
Bennett Tomlin
As well as like all the investigative resources, they had all the data on ongoing cases and things like that. So, yeah, they've gone in and tried to kill off another agency. They're trying to do the same thing with the Department of Education as well, which isn't financial.

00:04:39:16 - 00:04:42:19
Bennett Tomlin
So we're not focusing on that. But it's going on all over the coup is everywhere.

00:04:42:19 - 00:04:48:12
Cas Piancey
yeah. And we, you know, we've mentioned previously, I think about the CIA layoffs, the FBI layoffs, the,

00:04:48:12 - 00:04:51:01
Cas Piancey
the USAID layoffs.

00:04:51:01 - 00:05:01:14
Cas Piancey
is everywhere, and we, I, we urge you, like, we're here to talk about finance mostly, and fraud. Right? So we we can talk about these. What we specialize in. But there's so much more going on.

00:05:01:18 - 00:05:14:04
Cas Piancey
And really you got to stay on top of it. I know that's asking a lot from people right now. I know it's hard, hard to do it, but we really need people to. I need you to subscribe to some, some journalistic outlets that are doing a good job right now. I need that,

00:05:14:04 - 00:05:17:17
Cas Piancey
and I need you to talk to friends and family and tell them what's going on,

00:05:17:17 - 00:05:19:13
Cas Piancey
and make sure they understand that this can't.

00:05:19:18 - 00:05:36:21
Cas Piancey
If we go forward here and these things start to get dismantled, we're going to get onto this again later on in this episode. But if these things continue to be dismantled, you cannot just easily rebuild. If you set the house on fire, you don't get to be like, is the foundation okay? Like the is gone?

00:05:36:21 - 00:05:37:12
Cas Piancey
So,

00:05:37:12 - 00:05:47:06
Cas Piancey
we're entering that stage now, so I just, I really need people to pay for journalism, pay for the fourth estate, pay attention to it and tell your friends and family now.

00:05:47:06 - 00:05:47:12
Cas Piancey
Sorry.

00:05:47:12 - 00:05:54:19
Bennett Tomlin
Hey, listen. If we accidentally start a fire, we'll dump some water a couple hundred miles away and the fires will stop.

00:05:54:19 - 00:05:56:19
Cas Piancey
The valve we’re turning the valve on

00:05:56:19 - 00:05:59:01
Bennett Tomlin
We'll turn all the valves on. Fuck farmers.

00:05:59:01 - 00:06:00:05
Cas Piancey
Yeah, yeah.

00:06:00:05 - 00:06:02:11
Bennett Tomlin
Sorry. Sorry. Not the point. Go back.

00:06:02:11 - 00:06:06:23
Cas Piancey
Moving on. We're going to be talking about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,

00:06:06:23 - 00:06:16:08
Cas Piancey
which seems to kind of have been stopped. Like they're not they're doing everything they can to the end. To be clear, this is a way

00:06:16:08 - 00:06:20:04
Bennett Tomlin
Bob Menendez is screaming from his Easy Boy recliner today.

00:06:20:04 - 00:06:20:12
Cas Piancey
Yeah.

00:06:20:12 - 00:06:27:14
Cas Piancey
And famously, we talked about how, like, Chinese officials got bribed by Sam Bankman-Fried in FTX, and I'm sure they're just like, well, that would be illegal now.

00:06:27:14 - 00:06:32:00
Cas Piancey
And the reason we're saying this is because this, this law is specifically designed to stop people,

00:06:32:00 - 00:06:34:15
Cas Piancey
from bribing foreign officials,

00:06:34:15 - 00:06:35:05
Cas Piancey
and.

00:06:35:05 - 00:06:37:14
Bennett Tomlin
prevent foreign people from bribing our officials.

00:06:37:14 - 00:06:39:02
Cas Piancey
Yeah, it runs both ways.

00:06:39:02 - 00:06:41:15
Cas Piancey
And it it was enacted in 1977.

00:06:41:15 - 00:06:46:20
Cas Piancey
This is not a new law. This has been around for a very long time. So the fact that they're starting to look at it

00:06:46:20 - 00:06:49:23
Cas Piancey
and try to change it should be very concerning.

00:06:49:23 - 00:07:04:04
Bennett Tomlin
Yeah. And so, Pam Bondi, her day one memo, and after she got confirmed was like, we're eliminating basically all white collar crime stuff, including the Foreign Corrupt Purposes Act. All those people are being reassigned.

00:07:04:04 - 00:07:04:18
Bennett Tomlin
So, yeah,

00:07:04:18 - 00:07:10:23
Bennett Tomlin
there's no enforcement. Bribery, legal corruptions, legal consumer financial protections are illegal.

00:07:10:23 - 00:07:19:07
Cas Piancey
For me, it's been very mind boggling and just kind of hard to imagine. Apparently Trump has an approval rating over 50% right now.

00:07:19:07 - 00:07:31:18
Cas Piancey
our constitution is being desecrated. You know, the nation is America as we know it is being destroyed. I think the malaise and the apathy for that goes along the lines of, I was over it anyway.

00:07:31:18 - 00:07:34:16
Cas Piancey
And it's like, okay, well, you don't know what's about to happen.

00:07:34:16 - 00:07:45:07
Cas Piancey
if you thought republican democracy was boring and rough and didn't work that well, boy, oh boy, are you going to be horrified when we have a fascist, authoritarian dictator.

00:07:45:07 - 00:07:54:09
Bennett Tomlin
will also say, over. Like the last week, Trump's favorability has flipped, and he is now more unfavorable than favorable. But. But he did come in with positive favorability.

00:07:54:09 - 00:07:59:21
Bennett Tomlin
So that has shifted a little bit, but it's still only like, plus 1% unfavorable or something on fivethirtyeight's.

00:07:59:21 - 00:08:04:01
Bennett Tomlin
Aggregate. So. Yeah. But, hey, at least there's no more pennies, right?

00:08:05:06 - 00:08:11:13
Cas Piancey
Yeah. So this has been an issue for me for a long time now. Trump and Musk are both saying we need to get rid of the penny.

00:08:11:13 - 00:08:14:07
Cas Piancey
Which is really unfortunate because I agree with that.

00:08:14:07 - 00:08:16:00
Bennett Tomlin
But it's supposed to go through Congress.

00:08:16:00 - 00:08:24:05
Cas Piancey
it is supposed to go through Congress. I also think they're cowards because if they if they cared, they would know that the nickel is also super costly to produce and doesn't help us.

00:08:24:05 - 00:08:24:15
Cas Piancey
So,

00:08:24:15 - 00:08:28:02
Cas Piancey
they should be getting rid of that too. But they're cowards. They're cowards and they're liars.

00:08:28:02 - 00:08:30:14
Cas Piancey
So, okay, unfortunately, I agree with them on that.

00:08:30:14 - 00:08:32:16
Cas Piancey
But we can move right on to

00:08:32:16 - 00:08:38:04
Cas Piancey
they say they want to kill the penny, but ultimately it looks like they're going to probably kill the dollar.

00:08:38:04 - 00:08:43:19
Cas Piancey
And we were on blue Sky and somebody said to me,

00:08:43:19 - 00:08:48:16
Cas Piancey
sorry. Somebody said that they ask this out loud. I think it's a reasonable question.

00:08:48:16 - 00:09:05:03
Cas Piancey
They said, Is Elon trying to fuck up the US dollars? So we have to use crypto? Like, is that what's happening? And I don't you're giving Elon Musk too much credit Elon Musk I know people think this is a silly thing to say, but really he is stupid when it comes to like most things. He's pretty stupid.

00:09:05:03 - 00:09:10:08
Cas Piancey
And understanding how money works and the US dollar and how it stays strong.

00:09:10:10 - 00:09:15:02
Cas Piancey
He doesn't understand how that happens, but why do we think he's going to unintentionally kill the dollar

00:09:15:02 - 00:09:26:20
Bennett Tomlin
Well, for. He's already attacked the full faith and credit of the United States by impounding transfers that were already appropriated by Congress, both to domestic agencies and to foreign groups that,

00:09:26:20 - 00:09:45:13
Bennett Tomlin
work under contract with the United States government, like with funds already under contract for them. And he has continued that assault on the full faith and credit of the US financial system by him and Trump, threatening to default on certain treasuries where they have imagined some irregularity.

00:09:45:15 - 00:10:15:09
Bennett Tomlin
He's also threatened to duplicate, like the record based system at Social Security because he claimed some people had that some Social Security numbers are in there more than once, and they're supposed to be. The system is designed like that. When your name changes, there's no two records in the system, one with your original name, one with your change name, so that when they pull in all the records associated with a search and social Security number, they can see over time the changes associated with that number.

00:10:15:14 - 00:10:36:01
Bennett Tomlin
Musk has instead decided what this means is that if the Social Security numbers in there more than once, you were defrauding the United States government and getting many extra Social Security payments, you're not supposed to. So the next thing he's going to do is start, attacking direct transfers to United States citizens, Social Security, Social Security, disability, and some of the indirect transfers, Medicaid and Medicare as part of it.

00:10:36:05 - 00:10:40:08
Bennett Tomlin
So that's another attack on the full faith and credit of the US system. We talked in our,

00:10:40:08 - 00:11:09:09
Bennett Tomlin
CBDC episode about how their definition of Cbdc is fundamentally incompatible with our banking system. We're talking about the gutting of financial regulations, the gutting of depositor protection, the gutting of banking safety regulations, the gutting of like crypto custody regulations, the gutting of all these regulations meant to prevent risks like 2008 or even like 1929, or being eliminated in favor of this far more brittle, far more fragile system, which is far more likely to collapse.

00:11:09:11 - 00:11:28:00
Bennett Tomlin
So yeah, defaulting on treasuries, though, is the one thing that we fucking can't do in which both Musk and Trump have indicated that they are planning on doing. They fundamentally want the United States to default, and that is ruinous to the global economy in a way that cannot be predicted or managed.

00:11:28:00 - 00:11:42:03
Cas Piancey
It's really important to understand that. That we. None of us have ever lived through a time where the dollar, like, people talk about it all the time. They're like the diminishing value of the dollar over a hundred years or whatever they say. Like there's always a crypto argument about,

00:11:42:03 - 00:11:45:00
Cas Piancey
you know, inflation every year makes the dollar worthless.

00:11:45:00 - 00:11:51:04
Cas Piancey
But like, there's a reason we have slight inflation. There's a reason that you kind of want that for the velocity of money.

00:11:51:04 - 00:12:11:23
Cas Piancey
And what they're doing here is going to throw something that has taken us 100 years to get to be this powerful. Like we had to do the Marshall Plan. We had to do. We had to utilize the dollar to save nations, to, like, save millions of lives like we actually used it for great purposes.

00:12:11:23 - 00:12:13:05
Cas Piancey
And that's why it became this

00:12:13:05 - 00:12:31:16
Cas Piancey
economic powerhouse. We everyone utilizes it for everything, and it's going to go away. I need people to understand that it will not. Your dollar in a year. If they do what they're saying, your dollar will not be worth a dollar anymore. Basically is what I'm trying to tell you. It will be worth way less than what it's worth now.

00:12:31:16 - 00:12:43:15
Cas Piancey
And it won't be 5%, or 6%, or 10%. It'll be more than that. The shit that Argentina deals with is what we will be dealing with here. So let's not do that. And hedge with CasCoin.

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3 responses to “Episode 164 – CFPB RIP 🪦”

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