De-Gouging the Economy
Presented by Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
For the first gathering of Great Society Action, we were joined by Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, for a conversation about one of the biggest challenges facing American families: the cost of living.
Chopra has spent much of his career looking at the economy from the perspective of the consumer. He helped popularize and is widely credited with coining the term “junk fees,” putting a name to an experience millions of Americans already understood: seeing one price advertised, only to discover additional charges when it comes time to pay.
That frustration is bigger than junk fees. Consumers increasingly encounter subscriptions that are difficult to cancel, unexpected charges, limited choices, and prices that can feel disconnected from what something actually costs to provide. For Chopra, these everyday experiences matter not only as policy problems, but as a way of understanding how people experience the economy.
The Idea
Chopra's message was straightforward: keep the consumer at the center of the economic conversation.
Voters don't experience the economy primarily through statistics about GDP or aggregate growth. They experience it at the grocery store, when they pay a utility bill, book a hotel room, use a credit card, buy a concert ticket, or discover another fee added to something they thought they had already paid for.
And increasingly, many consumers feel like they are getting ripped off.
That frustration should matter to Democrats. An economic agenda focused on consumers starts by recognizing that affordability isn't only about whether people have enough money to pay higher prices. It's also about asking why those prices and fees are so high in the first place, who has the power to set them, and whether consumers have meaningful choices.
In his essay “De-Gouging the Economy,” Chopra argues for using the tools of government more aggressively to address the sources of high costs. That can include increasing competition, scrutinizing excessive fees and markups, and intervening when concentrated markets leave consumers with too little choice or leverage.
His work on junk fees offers a model for this approach. Rather than treating a frustrating charge as a minor inconvenience, policymakers can identify a practice that millions of people encounter in their everyday lives, give it a name, explain why it happens, and then demonstrate what government can do about it.
The larger idea Chopra brought into the room was therefore both a policy argument and a political one: Democrats can put consumers at the center of their economic message by taking seriously the everyday moments when Americans feel overcharged, trapped, or ripped off—and showing how government can fight on their behalf.
Go Deeper
De-Gouging the Economy — Rohit Chopra, The States Forum
https://www.statesforum.org/january-book/cost-of-living/
Why States Must End Junk-Fee Creep — Rohit Chopra
https://www.statesforum.org/why-states-must-end-junk-fee-creep/
Rohit Chopra — Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/commissioners-staff/rohit-chopra
Rohit Chopra on Junk Fees — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/archive/newsroom/prepared-remarks-of-cfpb-director-rohit-chopra-on-a-press-call-on-junk-fees/