THE CFPB TOOK AIM AT BIG TECH. THEN MUSK MOVED TO DISMANTLE IT. By TONY ROMM The Washington Post ELON MUSK IN THE OVAL OFFICE ON TUESDAY. HIS ASPIRATIONS TO INTEGRATE DIGITAL PAYMENTS INTO HIS SOCIAL MEDIA SITE X WERE BEHIND HIS ATTACKS ON THE CONSUMER PROTECTION BUREAU, FORMER OFFICIAL SAY.

About a week before Elon Musk helped take over the nation's leading consumer financial watchdog, his social media site, X, unfurled the details of a new payment system that may have drawn federal scrutiny — underscoring the complicated web of personal interests at stake as the world's richest man advises President Donald Trump on a reconfiguration of the U.S. government.

The system is called X Money, and in the vision sketched out by executives, it would allow millions of users on X to instantly send money to friends, family members and others. Heralding it as a breakthrough in finance, the company said in late January it would launch this year with the support of Visa, one of the largest credit card networks globally.

Because of its direct ties to bank accounts and debit cards, X Money normally would fall under the remit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency with vast powers to crack down on unfair, deceptive and predatory corporate practices. Formed in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, the CFPB in recent years has interpreted its mission expansively — policing traditional banks as well as Apple, Google and other tech giants that seek to offer payment services.

But that was before last week, when Musk's team of young agents — acting at Trump's behest — began targeting the CFPB as part of their disruptive campaign to slash spending and regulation across government. As they burrowed into the bureau's computers, Musk made clear his goal is to dismantle the agency, which soon ordered a full stoppage to all of its work to investigate companies and protect consumers.

By Tuesday, top CFPB enforcement offi cials departed the agency after clashing with the Trump administration over the freeze, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post. And Musk's aides, operating under the banner of the U.S. DOGE Service, appeared to gain authorization to access "all" CFPB computer systems, other emails indicated, raising questions about whether those close to the tech mogul might be able to see nonpublic information about his potential digital-payment competitors.

But the shutdown alone amounted to a long-sought victory for Musk and other CFPB critics in Silicon Valley, where executives have lobbied to neuter its oversight — and some companies, including X, have supported lawsuits to scuttle the agency's rules. And it left unclear the future of Washington's approach to digital finance, as a wave of formerly brick-and-mortar banking services migrate online with no clear federal regulator to oversee them.

"This is like a bank robber trying to fire the cops and turn off the alarms before he strolls in the lobby," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a rally outside CFPB headquarters Monday .

Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for X also did not respond to multiple requests.

Musk and his team had been laying the groundwork for years to launch a payment system: He reportedly raised the idea at one of his first meetings with staff after acquiring the social media company, then known as Twitter, in 2022. Once he renamed the site the following year, Musk promised that July that X would eventually expand to "add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world."

"Think Venmo at first," Christopher Stanley, who runs security engineering for X, said in a post this past April explaining the app soon would allow users to send cash and make payments. Stanley described the ultimate goal as a payment and lending network in which "you shouldn't ever need to take money out because you should be able to do anything you need on our platform."

Musk's interest in payments reflected a rapid shift underway throughout Silicon Valley, as the largest tech companies — already stewards of vast troves of consumer data — looked to monetize their insights further by serving as the primary conduits through which millions of people spend money. That trend had already raised alarms in Washington, where CFPB officials under President Joe Biden came to fear that federal laws had not kept pace with the digitization of banking.

In a study of major tech firms by the bureau's last director, Rohit Chopra, the agency found most adults had used digital payment apps — even though the money stored on these services is not insured against loss, unlike traditional banks. The bureau also collected tens of thousands of complaints from consumers, who said they struggled to address fraudulent charges and other issues on their accounts.

"Digital payments have gone from novelty to necessity, and our oversight must reflect this reality," Chopra said last fall.

By the end of the Biden administration, the CFPB had meted out a number of punishments against tech companies, products and services, including Apple, Cash App and Zelle, while launching probes into firms including Meta, the parent of Facebook. Many consumer advocates heralded the CFPB intervention, arguing that federal and state laws had created a messy patchwork with no clear consumer protection watchdog.

But Chopra's actions only earned more enemies in Silicon Valley, which had been quietly stoking congressional opposition to the bureau's oversight for months. Shortly after the 2024 election, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen publicly lashed out at the CFPB — attacking the agency on a podcast for "terrorizing financial institutions."
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"Either way, you would have the CFPB looking into the activities of X," said Adam Rust, the director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, which supports the bureau's oversight. "That may be something Musk doesn't like."

Protect U.S. consumers, preserve CFPB
JOHN RASH Columnist

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Economic and employment data told a statistical story of the Great Depression. But the human story was understood visually through visceral images like "Migrant Mother," Dorothea Lange's era-defining photograph of a destitute, desperate farmworker and her children huddled in a California camp after the failure of the pea crop.

The Great Recession didn't yield such similar images — mostly photos of abandoned Arizona, Florida or California condominiums, or "The Big Short," the sublime film about subprime mortgages plunging the country into a deep recession that nearly spun into a global depression — a specter that led then President George W. Bush to say that if Congress didn't cooperate on emergency legislation "this sucker could go down."

The Great Depression's social and economic shock led to temporary programs like the WPA and CCC as well as enduring entities like the FDIC and SEC, among other alphabet-soup Washington and Wall Street institutions.

The Great Recession spurred one significant equivalent: The CFPB, or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which "was created after excessive risktaking by financial companies, many of whom were not supervised by a federal regulator, crashed our economy," Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said in a statement.

In a follow-up interview, Rust said that "first, they shouldn't shutter it because it's illegal," referring to its creation by Congress, not the White House.

He elaborated that the bureau is "dedicated to consumers, which is unlike any banking agency. When an older person is scammed, when a service member falls prey to a predatory loan, when you can't get resolution on your mortgage bill or your student-loan account, it's the CFPB that steps in."

In fact, the bureau says it's stepped in to claw back nearly $21 billion on behalf of wronged consumers. But the agency has long been fought by financial institutions. And now, by the Trump administration. Which, in action akin to the lightning (and likely illegal) dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has frozen the bureau's work by actions from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as well as the Office of Management and Budget, whose recently confirmed leader, Russell Vought, was one of the architects of "Project 2025," the controversial governing blueprint President Donald Trump disavowed on the campaign trail but seems to now be implementing from the White House.

The CFPB, according to the Washington Post, "has the authority to write rules for financial institutions, impose monetary penalties on those that violate them and provide compensation to consumers who have been wronged by malpractice. Consumers can also file complaints with it about financial products such as credit cards, virtual currencies, vehicle loans and mortgages."

But its nearly 1,700-plus employees were told by Vought to "cease all supervision and examination activity" and "stakeholder engagement."
The CFPB "has been a woke & weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time," Vought posted on X, Musk's social network, using the Orwellian words deployed to destabilize government institutions.

"I don't know what on Earth that means," Rohit Chopra, the bureau's former director told PBS NewsHour. Listing a litany of actions against financial institutions on behalf of consumers, Chopra said that "these are things that people of every political stripe want to protect themselves against." Consumers, he added, often do not have much power against "some of the biggest corporations in America.

And that's what the CFPB does to level the playing field."
Vought added to his post that "This must end." But Musk unsubtly seems to have already buried the bureau, posting "CFPB RIP" on X, next to a tombstone emoji.

Indeed, it seems the dawn of a grave era for oversight overall just weeks into the Trump administration. Beyond the previous unconscionable pardons of people who assaulted law enforcement officers on Jan. 6 and the questionably legal firing of 17 inspectors general of federal agencies, the administration on Monday moved to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (convicted of attempting to in effect sell the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama), as well as issued an executive order to pause all actions taken under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Musk, whose extensive, often federally funded businesses (including $13 billion in government contracts over the past five years, according to an analysis in the New York Times), have made him the world's richest man, is facing investigations by at least 11 different federal agencies, according to the Times. The investigators include the CFPB, which has hundreds of complaints about Tesla, mostly about debt collection or loan problems.

The bureau would also likely monitor Musk's plan to launch a payment system on X.
According to the White House press secretary, if Musk "comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts."

Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democratic senator, is less sanguine. In a letter to Tesla's general counsel and board chair, Blumenthal wrote that Musk's "dual roles — running a for-profit corporation while serving in public office — not only creates glaring conflicts of interest that pose grave risks for America's most sacred institutions but may also violate federal law."

Most profoundly, Chopra told PBS, "Defunding this type of oversight is just begging for another financial crisis."
Another Great Recession is a risk the country can't take — especially since it could spiral into an economic calamity similar to that which was the subject of Lange's Great Depression lens.

Or the camera of her contemporary Walker Evans, whose searing shots of sharecroppers struggling through the Great Depression were compiled in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," the seminal account of those who were the opposite of famous: anonymous, everyday, dignified Americans, the kind of people the CFPB — and, ideally, the administration — should protect. [email protected]

State Farm seeks urgent hike in Calif. homeowner rates after L.A. wildfires Insurance company wants 22% increase. By SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO -

State Farm, the largest homeowners insurance company in California, asked state insurance regulators Monday to urgently approve a 22% average rate increase, a worrying sign for an already fragile insurance market in a disaster-prone state.

In recent years, more Californians have struggled to secure affordable homeowners insurance as companies have raised their rates or pulled out of the market altogether as fires and other disasters have become more destructive. Last month's blazes in the Los Angeles region, which destroyed 12,000 homes, have only heightened those concerns as people have weighed whether to rebuild.

State Farm has received more than 8,700 claims from the Los Angeles fires alone and paid more than $1 billion to customers, according to the company. The insurer expects to pay out significantly more, and the fires will be the costliest in the history of State Farm, the company said.

State Farm General, which insures more than 1 million homeowners in California, is operated separately from affiliates that provide auto and life coverage. The company asked state regulators to approve the rate increases on renewals starting in May.

"Insurance will cost more for customers in California going forward because the risk is greater in California," the company said in a statement on Monday. "We must appropriately match price to risk. That is foundational to how insurance works."

The Insurance Commissioner's Office said it would review State Farm's rate increase application. The company already had three pending rate increase filings with the department.

"State Farm General's rate filings raise serious questions about its financial condition," Gabriel Sanchez, a spokesman for the insurance commissioner, said in an email. "To protect millions of California consumers and the integrity of our residential property insurance market, the department will respond with urgency and transparency."
State Farm has steadily tried to reduce its financial exposure in California as disasters have become more costly and frequent in the state. Last year, State Farm announced it would not renew 30,000 homeowners' policies. The previous year, the company announced it would not write any new policies in California.

Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, questioned State Farm's need for a midyear increase, particularly after the company instated a 20% one in March 2024.

She said State Farm General had spent funds boosting the profits of its parent company, and now was "crying broke."

The company has said that each affiliate was expected to operate on its own and that "capital is not freely transferable."

"We think they're taking advantage of the tragedy to try and squeeze Californians," Balber said. "We do think State Farm is using its size in the market to throw its weight around and try to bully California into a bailout that isn't justified."

Rate increases and policy nonrenewals in California have pushed an increasing number of residents onto a special plan created by state lawmakers in 1968 to cover people who can't get standard home insurance for various reasons.
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The number of homes on that program, the California FAIR Plan, doubled from 2020 to 2024.

Is making your bed a health risk? By LINDSEY BEVER The Washington Post

Is it true that you shouldn't make your bed?
There are plenty of reasons to make your bed. A tidy space has been associated with making healthier choices, a sense of accomplishment and control, and better sleep, research shows. A National Sleep Foundation survey of 1,500 Americans ages 25 to 55 revealed that those who make their beds every day are more likely to report getting quality sleep at night.
But there's at least one argument against bed-making that has been pervasive on the web — dust mites love a neatly made bed.
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It's a logical thought.
Dust mites are microscopic, eight-legged critters that feed on our dead skin cells and thrive in dark, warm, more-humid environments in mattresses, upholstered furniture, carpets and plush toys, even in the cleanest homes. They leave behind excrement and exoskeletons that we breathe in, potentially causing itchy, watery eyes; a scratchy throat; coughing; sneezing, and asthma, said Dr. Farah Khan, a spokeswoman for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

The pests particularly like our bedding, where they find not only our dead skin cells but also, as we sleep, our sweat, which adds humidity, said Khan, who also is a pediatric allergist.

In the early 2000s, researchers examined how indoor environments affect dust mite populations. As part of their broader findings, they suggested that when people leave a bed unmade, the environmental conditions in the mattress where dust mites are concentrated revert more quickly to room conditions that "are not the best conditions for their proliferation," said Stephen Pretlove, director of sustainable engineering at the University of Roehampton in London, who was an author of the studies.

"You can therefore say there is evidence that suggests by not making your bed in the morning this will have a positive impact on reducing dust mite populations, however small," he said.

There is no consensus among experts, however, on whether bed-making affects dust mite populations. People who want to make their beds should keep it as part of their morning routine, but those who want to take precautions could wait for the body heat and moisture to dissipate in the morning before making the bed, some experts say.
In the end, "whether it's a made or unmade bed, our skin flakes are going to be all over it," said Dr. Juanita Mora, a spokesperson for the AmericanLung Association.
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What else to know
There are steps you can take to help keep dust mites under control in your home, particularly for people who are more susceptible to the allergens, such as people with asthma, experts said. Those steps include:

1  Use dust mite covers on mattresses and pillows.

2  Limit the number of stuffed animals on your child's bed to only a few at a time, and wash them regularly.  

3  Avoid using carpet and throw rugs in your home.

4 Aim to keep the relative humidity in your home less than 50%. Dehumidifiers can be helpful in the summer.

5  Clean your home frequently. Particularly, wash bed linens and use a HEPA vacuum on upholstered furniture, drapes and flooring.

The bottom line: 
Dust mites thrive in the dark, warm and more humid environment that is our bed. Theoretically, making a bed immediately after waking may temporarily seal in body heat and moisture, but any effect on dust mite populations would be small.