Oh, come on. Really? From CBS News:

Under Cordray, for instance, the CFPB opened an investigation into lending practices at World Acceptance (WRLD). On Jan. 22, the company said the investigation had been completed without enforcement action. It also said CEO Janet Matricciani had resigned after 2 ½ years in that position. Two days later, Matricciani sent an email to what appears to be Mulvaney's personal email address to pitch herself as a candidate to lead the CFPB. The email was shared exclusively with The Associated Press by Allied Progress, a left-leaning consumer advocacy group, which obtained the document as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

She goes so far as to cite the CFPB's investigation into her company as an experience that uniquely qualifies her for the job. "I have indepth [sic] experience of what a CFPB investigation is like, and so I am in an unparalleled position to understand the effect of various CFPB actions on a company, its workforce, its customers and the industry," she wrote. World Acceptance, one of the nation's biggest payday lenders, is based in South Carolina and gave Mulvaney thousands of dollars in campaign contributions while he represented the state in Congress. Matricciani's email suggests she and Mulvaney have corresponded in the past. The email is sent to his personal email address, and Matricciani starts off by saying, "I have always enjoyed our interactions on business and regulatory situations ever since I became CEO of World Acceptance Corporation in 2015."

Give Ms. Matricciani credit. She knows a good smash-and-grab opportunity when she sees one and, since the entire administration* is basically an unusually formalized outbreak of looting, she obviously would fit right in.

And why did Mulvaney’s good pals in this company draw the attention of the CFPB back when it was doing what it was designed to do? In 2013, the good folks at ProPublica took a look. They were a creative bunch. In states, like Georgia, that had banned payday loans, the company had morphed its schemes into installment loans.

Installment loans can be deceptively expensive. World and its competitors push customers to renew their loans over and over again, transforming what the industry touts as a safe, responsible way to pay down debt into a kind of credit card with sky-high annual rates, sometimes more than 200 percent. And when state laws force the companies to charge lower rates, they often sell borrowers unnecessary insurance products that rarely provide any benefit to the consumer but can effectively double the loan's annual percentage rate. Former World employees say they were instructed not to tell customers the insurance is voluntary. When borrowers fall behind on payments, calls to the customer's home and workplace, as well as to friends and relatives, are routine. Next come home visits. And as Sutton and many others have discovered, World's threats to sue its customers are often real.

Sutton's loan contract said her annual percentage rate, or APR, was 90 percent. It wasn't. Her effective rate was more than double that: 182 percent. World can legally understate the true cost of credit because of loopholes in federal law that allow lenders to package nearly useless insurance products with their loans and omit their cost when calculating the annual rate. As part of her loan, Sutton purchased credit life insurance, credit disability insurance, automobile insurance and non-recording insurance. She, like other borrowers ProPublica interviewed, cannot tell you what any of them are for: "They talk so fast when you get that loan. They go right through it, real gibberish."

Hard economic times draw companies like this the way carrion draws vultures. Mick Mulvaney is ringing the dinner bell.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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