t began by comparing a mortgage and a toaster. That's how then–Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren made the case for a government consumer financial protection agency akin to the Consumer Product Safety Commission created under President Nixon in 1972. Warren's 2007 article “Unsafe at Any Rate,” a reference to Ralph Nader's 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, planted the seed for what would later become the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency charged with making “consumer financial markets work for consumers, responsible providers, and the economy as a whole.” Her persuasive argument made the need for such an agency crystal clear to ordinary consumers:
It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street—and the mortgage won't even carry a disclosure of that fact to the homeowner. Similarly, it's impossible to change the price on a toaster once it has been purchased. But long after the papers have been signed, it is possible to triple the price of the credit used to finance the purchase of that appliance, even if the customer meets all the credit terms, in full and on time. Why are consumers safe when they purchase tangible consumer products with cash, but when they sign up for routine financial products like mortgages and credit cards they are left at the mercy of their creditors?
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