Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., center, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., conduct a news conference after the Senate Policy luncheons in the Capitol, March 14, 2017.
Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images
Democrat lawmakers led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday held a forum pushing back against the moves that the Trump administration and Elon Musk have taken to neutralize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Guests at the event included a retired military veteran helped by the agency, a mortgage broker who said the CFPB has helped curb industry abuses, and the bureau’s former head for supervision.
But the focus of the senators’ attention was Elon Musk, the driving force behind the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. While Musk was invited to the Washington, D.C, event, according to Warren, he didn’t make an appearance.
The lawmakers questioned whether Musk was conflicted in his efforts to dismantle the CFPB, highlighting his recent plan to launch a digital payments service within X, the social media network he owns.
“By seizing control of the agency, Musk can now root through all of the CFPB’s confidential data that DOGE has accessed on these potential competitors,” Warren said. “As Musk launches his new app, he faces oversight from the CFPB. His plan seems to be to eliminate the watchdog.”
A representative for Musk and X didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
Earlier this month, operatives from DOGE gained access to CFPB systems, shortly before the bureau’s new leadership shuttered the agency’s headquarters, froze nearly all activities and laid off roughly 200 employees. A CFPB union has alleged in a lawsuit that acting CFPB Director Russell Vought intends to fire more than 95% of the agency’s staff.
“Elon, how do you justify shutting down the agency that’s going to be looking at your peer-to-peer payment plan?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D.-Minn., asked rhetorically during the hearing Tuesday. “How do you justify shutting down the agency that has jurisdiction and oversight over many of the other financial issues that you are going to make money from doing?”
‘Secret sauce’
Responding to a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D.-Md., about what Musk could do with CFPB data, Lorelei Salas, the former CFPB supervision director, said the regulator kept “very sensitive trade secret information,” including from payments services PayPal, CashApp and Zelle, as well as online lenders.
“We’ve been looking at a number of digital wallet companies, payments companies, and we have information… on the technologies that they’re using,” Salas said. “We have information on the secret sauce of the credit models that people used with artificial intelligence to make decisions about whether you get a loan or not.”
Late last year, the CFPB took steps to supervise tech giants and payments firms that dominate the market, including Apple and PayPal, and sued the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three biggest U.S. banks using it for allegedly failing to properly investigate fraud complaints.
Besides confidential data on companies examined by the CFPB, the agency has “very sensitive data” from consumers filing complaints, Salas added. Consumers often leave account numbers and other personal data in their complaints, agency sources have said.
Now, with the CFPB and its employees in a state of limbo, the question is how far Musk and Vought can take their campaign to minimize the watchdog. A federal judge has halted their efforts, saying that they cannot fire employees or purge bureau data for the time being.
“The CFPB has been sidelined, but it is not dead,” Warren said, asserting that only Congress can shut down the bureau. “Advocates are in court right now asking judges to enforce the law, and I am confident they are going to win.”
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Lululemon – The athleisure company saw shares plunging more than 11% after President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on countries where the firm imports a big portion of its products. In 2024, Lululemon sourced 40% of its products from Vietnam, which was hit by a 46% tariff by the administration. Almost 90% of Lululemon’s products are made in Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Deckers Outdoor – Shares of the footwear company plunged more than 14% following Trump’s reciprocal tariffs rollout. The Ugg maker has 68 supply chain partners in Vietnam and 125 suppliers in China. Nike – The athletic apparel stock declined 12.1% following the Trump administration’s wide-ranging tariffs upon major trading partners. Nike manufactures roughly half its footwear in China and Vietnam, which will be subject to tariff rates of 54% and 46%, respectively. Discount retail stocks – Shares of Five Below and Dollar Tree shed more than 27% and 9%, respectively, on the heels of the new reciprocal tariff announcement. Both companies are big sellers of imported goods, and Dollar Tree CEO Michael Creedon has said that the company might increase prices to offset the tariff impact. Bank stocks – Shares of several banks Bank stocks pulled back as traders reckoned with the potential economic fallout of Trump’s tariff policy. Shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley each slid nearly 8%, while JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America and Citi fell more than 5%, 9% and 10%, respectively. Ford – The automaker’s stock declined nearly 4%. On Thursday, Ford announced that it’s offering employee pricing to all customers on multiple models in a program called “From America for America.” Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles went into effect Thursday. Big Tech stocks — Shares of mega-cap technology names plummeted amid investor concerns that the businesses will face pressures from Trump’s tariffs. Tesla declined nearly 5%, while shares of Amazon and Apple fell more than 7% and 8%, respectively. Alphabet shares also moved more than 3% lower. Semiconductor stocks – Shares of chipmakers also took a hit after the tariff announcement, even after the White House said that semiconductors wouldn’t be subject to the new levies. Shares of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices both fell more than 6%, while Broadcom declined more than 8% and Qualcomm slumped more than 9%. Microsoft – Shares shed about 3% after Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the company is scaling back its data center projects around the world. RH – The luxury home furnisher nosedived 43.5%, on track for its worst day on record after fourth-quarter earnings and forward guidance came in weaker than expected. RH earned $1.58 per share, excluding items, on $812 million in revenue, while analysts polled by LSEG penciled in $1.92 per share and $830 million in revenue. CEO Gary Friedman told analysts that the company was operating within the ” worst housing market in almost 50 years .” Wayfair – Shares tumbled 25% on the back of Trump’s newly announced tariffs, with countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines all receiving higher tariffs than the baseline 10%. During a February earnings call, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah said that these aforementioned nations “have grown as places where folks have factories and where our goods are coming from.” Lyft – The ride-sharing stock dropped more than 9% after receiving a double downgrade to underperform from buy at Bank of America, citing increasing headwinds from autonomous vehicles. Lamb Weston – Shares gained more than 9% after the food processing company posted better-than-expected third-quarter results. Lamb Weston reported adjusted earnings of $1.10 per share on $1.52 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet were expecting 86 cents per share on $1.49 billion in revenue. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li and Lisa Kailai Han contributed reporting.
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Lululemon – Shares tumbled more than 12% on the heels of President Donald Trump’s new wide-ranging tariffs . According to an SEC filing , the company sourced 40% of its products from Vietnam in 2024 – a country that was slammed with a 46% tariff. Almost 90% of Lululemon’s products are made in Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Nike — Shares slumped about 9% after the United States lifted tariffs Wednesday. Nike manufactures roughly half its footwear in China and Vietnam, which will be subject to tariff rates of 54% and 46%, respectively. Discount retailers — Dollar Tree and Five Below tumbled more than 10% and 15%, respectively. Dollar Tree CEO Michael Creedon previously said the company may raise prices on items to offset the impact of new U.S. tariffs. The two companies are big sellers of imported goods. Ford — The automaker slipped 2.3%. Reuters reported that Ford will offer employee pricing to all customers on multiple models to absorb tariff costs, in a program called “From America for America.” Big Tech — Shares of mega-cap technology companies such as Nvidia fell as investors worried that the businesses will come under pressure from President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime. Nvidia dropped more than 5%, as did Tesla . Shares of Amazon.com slid more than 6%. Apple declined by more than 7%. Microsoft — The tech stock declined 2.3%. Bloomberg released another report stating that the XBox and Windows company is scaling back data center projects in the U.S. and overseas. JPMorgan , Citi , Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley — Bank stocks retreated sharply early Thursday as investors weighed the economic fallout of Trump’s tariff policy. Shares of JPMorgan Chase were down 3.8%, while Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all slid more than 4%. RH — The luxury home furnisher plunged 28% after posting weaker fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and first-quarter guidance than Wall Street had estimated. RH earned $1.58 per share, excluding one-time items, on $812 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG had penciled in $1.92 per share and $830 million in revenue. CEO Gary Friedman acknowledged to analysts that the company was operating in the “worst housing market in almost 50 years.” Deckers Outdoor — The footwear company that makes Ugg boots sold off more than 12% after the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs rollout. Deckers has 68 supply chain partners in Vietnam and 125 suppliers in China. Wayfair — The furniture retailer weakened about 12% on the back of higher U.S. tariffs on goods from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. CEO Niraj Shah said during an earnings call in February that the countries “have grown as places where folks have factories and where our goods are coming from.” — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Sean Conlon contributed reporting
‘The Big Money Show’ co-hosts discuss buy now, pay later spending options and the impact it will now have on your credit score.
Small, everyday purchases like a meal from DoorDash are now able to be financed through eat now, pay later options — a practice that some experts deem “predatory.”
“You’ve got to have enough sense to not follow the urge to finance a taco, okay? You have got to be an adult,” career coach Ken Coleman told “The Big Money Show,” Wednesday.
“This is predatory, and it’s going to get a lot of people in deep trouble.”
DoorDash and Klarna are now partnering up to extend buy now, pay later options to consumers. (Reuters, Getty / Getty Images)
Financial wellness experts are continuously sounding the alarm to cash-strapped consumers, warning them of the devastating impact this financial strategy could have on their credit score as some lenders will begin reporting those loans to credit agencies.
Consumers may risk getting hit with late fees and interest rates, similar to credit cards.
“So your sandwich might show up on your FICO score, especially if you pay for it late,” FOX Business’ Jackie DeAngelis explained.
Major players like Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna have risen to prominence at a time when Americans continue to grapple with persisting inflation, high interest rates and student loan payments, which resumed in October 2023 after a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ramsey Solutions personal finance expert and ‘The Ramsey Show’ co-host George Kamel discusses the ‘buy now, pay later’ craze and the trend that celebrates the financial benefits of being childless.
“The Big Money Show” co-host Taylor Riggs offered a different perspective, suggesting that company CEOs have a “duty” to attract as many customers as they want.
“Unfortunately for me, this always comes down to financial literacy — which I know is so much in your heart about training people to save now by later,” she told Coleman, who regularly offers financial advice to callers on “The Ramsey Show.”
Coleman continued to come to the defense of financially “desperate” consumers, arguing that companies are targeting “immature” customers.
“I’m for American businesses being able to do whatever they want to do under the law. That’s fine. But let’s still call it what it is: it’s predatory, and they know who their customers are,” Coleman concluded, “And I’m telling you, they’re talking about weak-minded, immature, desperate people.”
FOX Business’ Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.