I may be moving to Berkeley. Viks Chaat.
06.03.2026 14:39
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I may be moving to Berkeley. Viks Chaat.
NEW from @shahrzadshams.bsky.social & me @rooseveltinstitute.org:
Donald Trump just called the Supreme Court "fools & lap dogs" and we've already forgotten about it.
What the ancient history of last Tuesday means for progressives rethinking SCOTUS power.
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/trumps-...
If your BART from the airport gets you to Berkeley at 4:30, you might as well try to walk into Cafe Chez Panisse, right? Asparagus is in season out here and the worst that can happen is they say no.
@newsweek.com with the scoop 👇
A 10% credit card interest rate cap is popular. But voters are skeptical it will actually happen.
“If a credit card cap were a priority for the Trump admin, it should have been signed into law months ago,” as our Emily DiVito pointed out.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Roosevelt Institute President and CEO Elizabeth Wilkins.
On Thursday, CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social met with @mayor.nyc.gov to talk about what it takes to govern—investing in public capacity and building the talent pipeline to deliver for working people. That’s the Roosevelt tradition: pairing big ideas with the capacity to deliver lasting results.
Or was this a "we cover Trump's words and do no follow up on the actual reality" type deal?
I do wonder about some of the reporting on this. Seems clear @warren.senate.gov came ready to play, and there has been crickets from the admin on this since Trump's "announcement." Maybe reporters who covered Trump's initial pronouncement should start mentioning that?
Snowy night pork goulash. Recipe America’s Test Kitchen
Stuffed shells with peas fennel and spinach. Recipe by America’s Test Kitchen
7/ As I said, woo boy.
6/ Garbage in, garbage out. But there are more errors! The report adds in the same dopey extrapolated “costs” to the auto market. The CFPB is expressly forbidden from regulating auto dealers… www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...
5/ It gets much, much wackier after that. They then extrapolate from this single (not a) “natural experiment” to every other market that the CFPB supposedly regulates, based on… complaint volume…?!?!
4/ But here they are two different things! Is the difference in cost due to the regulation? Uhh. No. Among many (many) other things, there is a completely different market for high risk loans. That affects prices! This is not a real study. www.bankrate.com/mortgages/se...
3/ Usually a “natural experiment” is when two different jurisdictions regulate the same thing differently. That at least in theory lets you see the effect of the regulation.
2/ Where to begin? The report relies on a “natural experiment” between highly regulated high-cost mortgages and less regulated lower interest ones. I do not think those words mean what you think they mean…
1/ Woo boy. This CFPB “study.” Truly a sad, sick joke. You can really see the Admin watching its numbers sink into the toilet on affordability & thrash in response. Would be funny if not so bleak. If this is their case against the CFPB… wow. They clearly hate what they don’t understand.🧵
Duck served with @smittenkitchen.bsky.social lentil-potato salad (cooked in duck fat) and Alison Roman fennel lemon anchovy salad
A monopolistic private equity company has caused a crisis of typefaces at the CFPB. Here's the story: indebt.substack.com/p/this-week-...?
That and much more in this week's edition of This Week In Debt from @borrowerjustice.bsky.social!
Rainy day duck
Dan Dan noodles from the new Little Tiger Dumplings in Farragut square DC
7/ Say it with me:
This administration is not serious about affordability.
This administration is not serious about affordability.
This administration is not serious about affordability.
6/ That also ignores everything else the CFPB could do on affordability:
Medical debt. Credit reporting errors that jack up loan prices. Rental fees. Junk fees. A thousand other pressure points.
Even the Trump FTC may be doing something on rental prices. Meanwhile, the CFPB is basically dark.
5/ Consumer complaints more than DOUBLED in 2025. How many billions were taken by abuses that would otherwise have been deterred? We’ll never know.
bit.ly/4rKIcct
4/ And that still understates the damage, because it leaves out deterrence.
Wall Street and scammers know the CFPB is off the beat. It’s open season on real people.
3/ Before Trump, the CFPB sent hundreds of examiners into banks and nonbanks every day to enforce the law.
Those exams got back billions for consumers and forced companies to change their illegal practices.
It’s now been nearly a year since the CFPB conducted an exam.
bsky.app/profile/brad...
2/ The $19B comes from a clean, defensible tally:
• Overdraft fee rollbacks: ~$5B
• Credit card fee rollbacks: ~$10B
• Abandoned enforcement actions: ~$4B
That math is solid, but it leaves a ton out.
1/ I like this new @banking.senate.gov report on the cost of Trump’s unlawful near-shutdown of the CFPB.
I will say that their headline number—“at least” $19 billion—is wildly conservative. Short 🧵
apnews.com/article/cfpb...
Imagine if I were in a city and arguably the best restaurant was named The Roosevelt and it was rec'd by @lukenorris.bsky.social and I didn't go. Luckily, we don't need to find out.
6/ In short: financial education isn’t the worst thing, but it’s often a weak sauce substitute for confronting corporate power. The Epstein files make that logic uncomfortably clear.
5/ Wild that this person who ”loves” and “misses” Jeffrey Epstein, of all people, tried to get a job at the CFPB in *2012*! Really shows the cynicism of the crony capitalists.