The stock market is booming. Unemployment beneficiary numbers have fallen to a 43-year low. Even the New York Times is acknowledging that the American economy “blooms.” These improvements do not happen organically, so President Donald J. Trump deserves some credit for helping boost the American economic engine out of eight-years of quagmire.
One of the leading reasons for the sudden boost in economic activity comes from the president’s willingness to reduce, cut, and eliminate job-killing regulations that shackled job creation during the Obama-years.
During the Obama presidency, the government pumped our regulations faster than a train bellows smoke.
From the nonsensical Paris Agreement, which burdened American business while allowing countries like China to skirt similar regulations, to the “War on Coal,” which decimated jobs in the industrial Mid-West and Appalachia, the Obama presidency imposed massive red-tape on the economy without regard to economic cost.
CEI estimated that the regulatory burden on the economy costs approximately $2 trillion a year, constituting a “hidden tax” of $15,000 per household. Thankfully, though, President Trump is reducing these costly regulations at a clip faster than President Ronald Reagan. The libertarian-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) reported that “large-scale regulations” have largely stopped in 2017.
The president squashed the Paris Agreement and recently ended the War on Coal. After enduring a perfect storm of government heavy-handedness and cheap natural gas, the industry has begun firing again. Trump’s willingness to take the slings and arrows from the media and even some establishment Republicans by withdrawing from the Paris Accords has brought life back into the industry.
Yesterday, the president continued his successful regulatory blitz by signing Congress’ repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule that, in effect, banned mandatory arbitration clauses in financial services contracts.
The CFPB, a government agency developed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), is a case study of how the government tips the scales against job creation. Run by a former Democratic politician, and immune from congressional oversight, the agency can pump out regulations without regard to cost or impact. Now, Congress, with the assistant of the president and the vice president, has rolled back the latest Bureau’s mandate.
The rule that the president repealed today was a classic example of how regulations imposed by the government under the guise of helping consumers are actually anti-consumer.
Arbitration is good for the American people, especially those with small-dollar claims. Disputes that go to arbitration typically settle faster than through litigation, with higher returns received than a standard class action lawsuit.
In most class action suits, the litigators make off with millions, while claimants receive pennies on the dollar. The CFPB’s own study of the issue conceded the rule would unleash a flood of litigation on the economy and acknowledged that consumers recover, on average, $5,389 when using arbitration. This number is a sharp contrast to the typical $32.35 Americans recovered when using class action suits. Many do not even receive monetary compensation from class actions and instead walk away with just a coupon, while trial lawyers laugh all the way to the bank.
Why, then, did the CFPB strike such a hard blow against arbitration? Perhaps it has something to do with how Richard Cordray, the head of the CFPB, has a long history of support for the trial lawyers, which finance his political endeavors. As Ohio Attorney General, he even violated state law to provide over $800,000 to legal experts that donated to the Ohio Democratic Party.
Despite the hackles from the left and some in the media, the vote and presidential signature is another feather in the Reaganesque approach to the economy adopted by the Trump White House. Pundits may cry foul when the cameras are rolling, but I am sure even they will not be complaining once their purchasing power appreciates because of these bold, courageous moves.
Views expressed in op-eds are not the views of The Daily Caller.