The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just issued this consumer advisory about the risks of bitcoin and other virtual currencies. The agency has also begun accepting consumer complaints on the topic. Today’s advisory warns that virtual currencies carry significant risks, including: · Exchange rates are volatile and costs unclear: The exchange rate of Bitcoins to U.S. […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is demanding information about what it terms "secret contracts" between banks and colleges under which the banks pay the colleges to steer students to their products, particularly credit cards. Here is an excerpt of an article on the topic by the CFPB's Rohit Chopra: If you’re a student preparing to […]
On July 21, we noted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's 3-year anniversary. If you want some detail on what the CFPB has been up to, over a wide-range of topics, read Ed Mierzwinski's The CFPB at Three: A Child Prodigy.
Law prof Linda Mullenix addresses that issue in Designing Compensatory Funds: In Search of First Principles. Here is the abstract: The World Trade Center Victims’ Compensation Fund of 2001 ushered in a new age of fund approaches to resolving claims for mass disasters in the United States. Since then, numerous funds have been created following […]
Teresa Schmid has written The Lawyer-Rent Seeker Myth and Public Policy. Here is the abstract: Two enduring fallacies in public policy are that lawyers are rent seekers who impair rather than stimulate the economy, and that there are too many of them. While lawyers may disagree with the first premise, they tacitly accept the second. […]
Allison recently posted on the Obama Administration's excecutive order prohibiting government contractors from using forced arbitration in contracts with their employees in some circumstances. To watch a news story on the order, go here or click on the embedded video below. HT to Paul Bland.
by Ted Mermin (guest blogger — pictured to the right) Just a quick follow-up on Allison Zieve's post on the country-of-origin-labeling case decided yesterday by the DC Circuit. As Allison notes, the case addresses the constitutional standard under which government-mandated disclosures should be reviewed. In particular, the decision will affect the manifold federal administrative regulations […]
This article by Matt O'Brien is about the same study that Scott posted about yesterday. But it highlights a longer-term phenomenon — that the middle class has lost ground, not only in the recent past (because of the massive recession spurred by the mortgage meltdown), but over the last three decades: Nostalgia is just about […]
Seriously. The Transportation Security Agency wants to know whether consumers have solutions to long airport security lines. TSA is offering cash rewards for the best ideas about how to speed security checks. The total payout will be $15,000. Top prize is no less than $5,000, and no award will be less than $2500. TSA explains […]