美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Administration Plans To Defang Consumer Protection Watchdog

Trump¹ Administration Plans To Defang Consumer Protection Watchdog

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have news this morning about the plans of the new leader of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mick Mulvaney is President Trump's appointee to run the agency that was created to protect Americans after the financial crisis. NPR has obtained an internal memo² that says a new strategic plan to be unveiled today will make the bureau less aggressive. In an early move in that direction, the bureau has already dropped a lawsuit³ against an online loan shark. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE⁴: This agency is a powerful and independent watchdog, but many Republicans have wanted to shut it down since day one because they think it's too powerful. Mick Mulvaney is one of them. As a congressman⁵, he called the bureau a joke.

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MICK MULVANEY: A joke. And that's what the CFPB really has been in a sick, sad kind of way. Some of us would like to get rid of it.

ARNOLD: In fact, Mulvaney drafted legislation to do just that. So people at the bureau were shocked when President Trump appointed Mulvaney to run this consumer protection agency. Within weeks, Mulvaney pulled the plug on a lawsuit. It accused a company called Golden Valley Lending of illegally charging people up to 950 percent interest rates. It took staffers years to build the case.

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON: People are devastated⁶ and angry. Just imagine how you would feel if years of your life had been dedicated⁷ to pursuing justice, and you lose everything.

ARNOLD: Christopher Peterson is a former enforcement attorney at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He says if the CFPB had pursued and won the lawsuit, that could've clawed back money to help thousands of people who've allegedly been hurt, people like Julie Bonenfant.

JULIE BONENFANT: I was literally⁸ facing eviction⁹ because I was so behind on my rent, and I had no idea where I was going to come up with the money, and it was just really rough.

ARNOLD: Bonenfant does administrative¹⁰ work for the city of Detroit. She's 27. But last year, she and her boyfriend broke up. Her car got stolen. And she got behind in her rent. So she found Golden Valley and took out a loan. But she says she had no idea what she was getting into.

BONENFANT: It was just misleading. It was just the way it was presented was literally presented as, like, I was going to make four large payments and then be done.

ARNOLD: But after those payments, the lender kept taking money out of her checking account. And she was told she'd agreed online to a lot more payments. She said she didn't realize that. But a screenshot from the Golden Valley website says on her $900 loan, her payments will total $3,735. That's more than four times what she borrowed in less than 12 months.

BONENFANT: I'm trying not to cry, but it was just such a bad year. And, obviously, I didn't really want to tell anybody, like, what had happened because it was so embarrassing and so shameful¹¹ that I would've fallen for something like this.

ARNOLD: Bonenfant's so far paid more than $3,000 to Golden Valley and rung up more than a thousand dollars in overdraft¹² fees at her bank. Finally, she went to her boss at work for help.

BONENFANT: He looked at it. And he was like, this is criminal. You know, they should be in jail. That's illegal.

ARNOLD: Lawyers at the CFPB came to a similar conclusion. That's why back in April, the bureau sued Golden Valley Lending for unfair, deceptive¹³ and abusive business practices. The lawsuit was moving forward until Trump's interim¹⁴ director Mick Mulvaney came on board. And the lawsuit was dropped.

PETERSON: Dismissal of this lawsuit shows an outrageous¹⁵ disregard for the rule of law.

ARNOLD: Christopher Peterson, the former CFPB attorney, worked on the case early on. He says this lender is one of the worst of the worst. It swindled people across the country out of tens of millions of dollars. On top of that, the lawsuit names a key backer of Golden Valley. It turns out he was recently convicted of racketeering in a case involving another online lender. So Peterson says he can't see why Mulvaney would drop this lawsuit against Golden Valley.

PETERSON: The Trump administration is just going to turn them loose and let them off the hook, despite the fact they were making 950 percent interest rate loans to struggling families in ways that were illegal and unauthorized under both state and federal law.

ARNOLD: Mick Mulvaney declined an interview. And in an email, his press person first said that the decision to drop the lawsuit was made by, quote, "professional career staff," not Mick Mulvaney. But that's not true. According to several CFPB staffers who spoke¹⁶ to NPR but who didn't want to be named for fear of losing their jobs, they say Mulvaney decided¹⁷ to drop the lawsuit, even though the entire career enforcement staff wanted to press ahead.

After repeated questions from NPR, Mulvaney's press person acknowledged that Mulvaney was, in fact, involved in the decision to drop the lawsuit. In his new strategic plan and in memos¹⁸, Mulvaney is clear. He wants to rein¹⁹ in this watchdog agency. He says the previous director was too aggressive and, quote, "pushed the envelope." Now, Mulvaney, wants more, quote, "humility²⁰ and moderation." He's also suggested that high interest rates, so-called payday lenders will not be a priority.

KARL FRISCH: Mick Mulvaney is a payday industry puppet.

ARNOLD: Karl Frisch is with the consumer group Allied²¹ Progress. He points to campaign contributions Mulvaney took from payday lenders.

FRISCH: As a congressman, he took $62,000-plus from the payday lenders. And now at the CFPB, he's doing their bidding.

ARNOLD: Or maybe it's just conservative ideology²² for less regulation. Either way, there appear to be plenty of unhappy Golden Valley customers.

ROBERT ROGERS: He goes, basically, sir, your mother took out the debt. She needs to pay it back, or there's going to be consequences for that.

ARNOLD: Robert Rogers builds customized motorcycles and guns. He says he was trying to help his retired²³ mother in California after she got into one of these Golden Valley loans. The costs seemed really high, so he called up the company.

ROGERS: And that's when I was like, OK, well, where's this money going? Where - you know, what's the interest rate on this thing?

ARNOLD: Rogers says the man on the phone wouldn't answer those questions. And Rogers says the guy even threatened him.

ROGERS: Pretty much every other word out of his mouth was F'in this or F'in that. You know, like, we'll come to your [expletive] house. You know, I'll get my money by any [expletive] means necessary, brah (ph). He became, like, some kind of just really bad gangster²⁴ movie.

ARNOLD: Golden Valley did not respond to requests for an interview. It turns out the company is officially headquartered on an Indian reservation. And in a court document, the company argues its loans are governed by tribal²⁵ law. The CFPB lawsuit said, no, Golden Valley is making illegal loans across the country. For her part, Julie Bonenfant in Detroit still hasn't paid off her debt to Golden Valley. And she doesn't like that President Trump's appointee dropped the lawsuit.

BONENFANT: I actually voted for Trump. I feel kind of, like, stupid, just kind of, like, betrayed.

ARNOLD: Mick Mulvaney hasn't given details about why the case was dropped. Meanwhile, staffers at the bureau say they're worried that Mulvaney will block more of their efforts to go after shady financial firms. Right now he's reviewing numerous ongoing²⁶ lawsuits²⁷ and investigations²⁸. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

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1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

3 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

6 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

7 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 eviction   

n.租地等的收回

参考例句：

• The family have won a temporary reprieve from eviction.这个家庭暂时免于被逐出。
• He claimed damages for unlawful eviction.他要求对非法驱逐作出赔偿。

10 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

11 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

12 overdraft   

n.透支，透支额

参考例句：

• Her bank warned that unless she repaid the overdraft she could face legal action.银行警告她如果不偿还透支钱款，她将面临诉讼。
• An overdraft results when a note discounted at a bank is not met when due.银行贴现的支票到期而未能支付就成为透支。

13 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

14 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

15 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

16 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

17 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

18 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

19 rein   

n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治

参考例句：

• The horse answered to the slightest pull on the rein.只要缰绳轻轻一拉,马就作出反应。
• He never drew rein for a moment till he reached the river.他一刻不停地一直跑到河边。

20 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。

21 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

22 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

23 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

24 gangster   

n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒

参考例句：

• The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
• He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。

25 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

26 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

27 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

28 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。