WaPo has the article about the past and present, A watchdog grows up: The inside story of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while the Times covers the future in Federal Consumer Agency Ponders Its Next Crusades. Both are worth a read. (HT: Ed Mierzwinski)
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here. An excerpt: [W]hile there has been attention to aggressive student debt collectors hired by the federal government, the [Educational Credit Management Corporation] does something else: it brings legal challenges to those few who are desperate enough to seek bankruptcy relief. * * * Founded in 1994, just after the largest agency backstopping federal student […]
We had previously posted a link to a site from which you could purchase SMU professor Mary Spector's article, Where the FCRA Meets the FDCPA: The Impact of Unfair Collection Practices on the Credit Report, 20 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law Policy (2013). Now it's available for free on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This […]
by Jeff Sovern From time to time we blog about credit reporting issues. But it is worth noting that when it operates properly, the credit reporting system is a huge boon to lenders and consumers, because it enables lenders to determine which consumers are most likely to repay a loan, which in turn enables lenders […]
The CFPB statement is here; Times coverage here. From the Bureau's statement: Some consumers were led to believe that if they bought the Account Protector product, their minimum monthly payment would be cancelled if they experienced a qualifying life event. In reality, the benefit payment would be limited to 2.5 percent of the consumer’s outstanding […]
Jennifer L. Pomeranz of Temple's Department of Public Health has written Extending the Fantasy in the Supermarket: Where Unhealthy Food Promotions Meet Children and How the Government Can Intervene, 12 Indiana Health Law Review 117 (2012). Here's the abstract: This paper summarizes research concerning the extent of in-store marketing of foods to children and the […]
Robert L. Clarke of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP and Todd J. Zywicki of George Mason University (Zywicki notes in an "about the authors" that he is a former director of the FTC's Office of Policy Planning but omits his links to the industry) have written Payday Lending, Bank Overdraft Protection, and Fair Competition at the Consumer […]
Adam J. Levitin of Georgetown has written The Paper Chase: Securitization, Foreclosure, and the Uncertainty of Mortgage Title, 63 Duke Law Journal 637 (2013). Here is the abstract: The mortgage foreclosure crisis raises legal questions as important as its economic impact. Questions that were straightforward and uncontroversial a generation ago today threaten the stability of […]
Here, with links to purchase the articles. The issue includes remarks from a program at the 2013 AALS Annual Meeting jointly sponsored by The Sections on Poverty Law and Clinical Legal Education, entitled The Debt Crisis and the National Response: Big Changes or Tinkering at the Edges? The list includes. The articles include: "Owner Finance! No Banks Needed!" […]