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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau May Be Legal, but It’s Past Its Prime

in Townhall on Share

The Supreme Court recently delivered a decision on the constitutionality of one of the federal government’s most peculiar and least understood agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Unlike the Fifth Circuit Court, which earlier ruled that the agency’s unique funding model violates the Constitution, Justice Clarence Thomas argued in the majority opinion the government’s funding of the CFPB “satisfies the Appropriations Clause”. The CFPB is a federal agency unlike…

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Open Source Arrests: US Officials Sour on Biden’s War on Privacy

in Bitcoin The Rage on Share

Biden is waging war on financial privacy, and not everyone is happy. The last several weeks have weighed heavily on those in Bitcoin who use privacy tools and software. Between the ceremonious arrests across two continents, Justice Department press releases, FBI warnings, and souring mood in Washington, many popular services for both sovereign and private Bitcoin use have wound down their operations in the US,…

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The feds are trying to stifle Bitcoin and crypto with draconian new regulations

in Bitcoin The Blaze on Share

Should regulations aimed at halting the financial activity of alleged criminals and terrorists be vastly expanded to include cryptocurrencies and firms that use them? Could this potentially harm entrepreneurial spirit and consumer freedom to deal in digital assets? Those were the questions asked this week in Washington as officials from the Treasury Department seek new tools to regulate and track Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that would…

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The privacy bill that exempts government and beefs up the FTC

in Reason on Share

Last week, a discussion draft of the American Privacy Rights Act was published. Considering I’ve written about the need for a national privacy law for some time, I wanted to be sure I gave it a honest read. I will publish a more detailed summary on the Consumer Choice Center website here soon. Herein you’ll find my Q&A with Reason Magazine Senior Editor Elizabeth Nolan…

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Misinformed Jon Stewart Applauds FTC Chair Lina Khan

in Daily Caller on Share

It’s not often that the head of a U.S. federal agency is given the red carpet treatment on Comedy Central, but for Jon Stewart, it’s to be expected. Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), appeared on the revamped Daily Show featuring Stewart as host on Monday nights, to hype up the FTC’s work battling the “monopolies” of the current era. Khan was certainly in…

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Litigation Finance Exposes Our Judicial System to Foreign Exploitation

in The National Interest on Share

Now that Congress has come to its senses about a forced divestiture plan to uncouple TikTok from the Chinese Communist Party, we’d be remiss not to explore other examples of how powers such as China influence American institutions. Let’s look at our justice system. In a handful of local court cases around the country, a Shenzhen-based firm has been clandestinely funding intellectual property lawsuits to help upend a major…

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The Fed’s Transaction Fee Cap Will Cost Consumers More Than They Realize

in Daily Caller on Share

Could your free checking accounts, rewards, and cash-back programs be axed by the Federal Reserve? Late last year, the Federal Reserve proposed a rule to lower the cap on transaction fees businesses pay to financial institutions on every debit card swipe, also known as “interchange fees.” These are the small fees that banks and credit unions charge merchants for using their payment rails to get paid. As…

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Climate lawyers could control the future of American energy, not consumers

in Orange County Register on Share

When we think of American energy, we conjure up images of oil drillers, refineries, pipelines, and end products we put into our cars or the plastic products we use daily. There are millions of jobs and billions of products sourced from energy production that make our society abundant and wealthy. That’s especially true today under President Joe Biden, as production of both oil and gas…

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Forcing TikTok’s divestiture from the CCP is both reasonable and necessary

in Consumer Choice Center on Share

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, a bipartisan group of US House legislators introduced a bill that would force ByteDance Ltd. to sell its US version of TikTok or face massive fines and federal investigations. This would have big ramifications for the video-sharing app, which is estimated to have over 150 million users in the US. In practice, HR7521 designates the popular social media application TikTok as a “foreign adversary controlled application,”…

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