In Trump's economy, mammas should make sure their babies grow up to be con men

By Catherine Rampell Opinion writer November 28 at 7:32 PM

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One of the many underappreciated legacies of the Obama administration has been its widespread implementation of pro-consumer policies. Under the outgoing president’s leadership, multiple executive branch departments and independent agencies have enacted laws, rules and regulations designed to protect regular Americans from, well, the Donald Trumps of the world.

By which I mean big companies and moneyed interests eager to fleece unsophisticated or shallow-pocketed borrowers, investors, consumers, workers and small-potatoes entrepreneurs. To the untrained ear, Trump’s campaign rhetoric suggested he might be on board with Obama’s mission.

Trump spoke frequently of how the system was “rigged” against the little guy, and how — because no one knows the system better than Trump — he alone could un-rig it. But now that he’s heading into office, Trump has flanked himself with a fleet of anti-regulation, anti-consumer subordinates who appear hellbent on dismantling the Obama administration’s hard-won pro-little-guy protections.

With a Cabinet likely worth tens of billions of dollars, Trump is assembling a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. And the policies his team wants to enact won’t line only their leader’s pockets — to the contrary, if they succeed, they’ll enrich enterprising " target="_blank">mugs, pugs and thugs throughout the land, too.

Almost immediately after the election, a Trump transition team member declared the president-elect’s intention to scrap the Obama administration’s new “fiduciary duty” rule. This rule, set to take effect in April, would require retirement investment advisers to act in the best interests of their clients. The finance industry hates the rule and would rather preserve its ability to sell products that are, by definition, not in the best interest of little-old-lady clients.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-trumps-economy-mammas-should-make-sure-their-babies-grow-up-to-be-con-men/2016/11/28/43ace7c6-b5af-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html?utm_term=.bfe1f0067571&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1