This three-decade study of the effectiveness of mammography to screen for breast cancer is sure to provoke controversy. Mammography has detected many breast cancers and saved lives, but, the study says, mammography over-diagnoses — that is, in many circumstances, it purports to find problems that never would have progressed to clinical breast cancer. Here is […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
Last June, we told you about a federal-court suit filed by a Texas Bank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the 60 Plus Association challenging various provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here is the complaint. The federal government has now moved […]
Recently, on this blog, Jeff Sovern went after George Will's attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, rightly noting that the CFPB's exercise of its regulatory and enforcement powers generally are not terribly different from what regulatory agencies have been doing for decades. Now, Jean Braucher has posted this extensive response to Will's piece. In doing […]
Keeping health care costs down under the Affordable Care Act depends significantly on increasing particiption in private health care plans (which, if the Act works as contemplated, would be spurred in part by subsidies provided under the law). As explained in this article by Sarah Kliff, because many people do not know about the law's […]
Just in time for the holidays, U.S. PIRG warns us about all the toys that will choke, cut, and otherwise harm our kids in its "Trouble in Toyland" report. And read PIRG's tips for avoiding the purchase of hazardous toys in the first place. Here's the report's executive summary: The 2012 Trouble in Toyland report […]
Just in time for the holidays from Consumer Reports, which has surveyed corporate policies on consumer refunds, fees, etc., and described what it thinks are the 10 naughtiest and the 10 nicest.
By Brian Wolfman I'm writing about U.S. Airways v. McCutchen, an ERISA case set for argument in the U.S. Supreme Court on November 27. The case's outcome may affect the viability of some personal-injury suits. When people are harmed by consumer products, doctors' negligence, or in car crashes, for instance, they often incur medical expenses. […]
Does BP's settlement of criminal charges with the federal government do enough to deter and punish? Law professors talk about that question in this video, with one calling it "a drop in the bucket" given BP's deep pockets, the extent of the wrong doing, and the death and destruction caused by the BP spill in the […]
As many of our readers are aware, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) makes it difficult for consumers to enforce their rights in court when the standard form contracts that govern their employment relationships or their consumer purchases contain arbitration clauses. The Supreme Court has interpreted the FAA broadly. Does the FAA apply in state courts […]
As the LA Times explains, "the Federal Housing Administration, which has played a crucial role in stabilizing the housing market, said it ended September with $16.3 billion in projected losses — a possible prelude to a taxpayer bailout. The precarious financial situation could force the FHA, which has been self-funded through mortgage insurance premiums since […]