Unconstitutional Agencies, Credit Card Competition, In Praise of Idleness

The preview of this supporters’ midweek episode open's with a discussion of Mike’s favorite federal agency – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Supreme Court is considering whether the financing system for the agency set up by Congress is unconstitutional. Mike doesn’t think so, but it’s a tougher call for Jay. After that, they look into the Credit Card Competition Act, legislation currently in the Senate that would force Visa and Mastercard to let merchants choose an alternative to them for processing credit card payments. On this, Mike and Jay are largely in agreement – more competition seems like a good idea, despite the scare ads that suggest it will mean the end of credit card rewards program. They close by considering Bertrand Russell’s essay “In Praise of Idleness”. Mike thinks there’s a lot to it, and while Jay sees the merit in some of what Russell argues, he feels that Russell might be over-selling idleness. The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe Politics Guys on Facebook | XListener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.