Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been named Mick Mulvaney Acting CFPB Director. According to Kate Berry in the American Banker, Senator Elizabeth Warren voted against Bessent’s confirmation, at least in part because Bessent supports financial deregulation.
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
We received a request to post the following: The National Association of Consumer Advocates was angered and disappointed by the new Federal Administration’s unwarranted decision to rescind summer clerk positions for law students interested in consumer and economic justice careers. While we’re sorry we cannot offer assistance to most law students harmed by this thoughtlessly […]
Tess Wilkinson‐Ryan, David A. Hoffman, and Emily Campbell, all of Penn, have written Contracts for Everyone. Herre’s the abstract: The architects of American contract law—judges, lawyers, regulators and academics—know a lot about what litigated deals look like, but almost nothing about the contracting of ordinary people. This Article offers a wide-ranging empirical account of how non-elites […]
The article, by Claire Williams, is headlined Sen. Tim Scott hints at ‘imminent’ CFPB director pick (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Excerpt: “It’d be nice for us to have someone, and I’ve asked the administration, please fire the guy,” Scott said. “I think we’re going to be happy with the answer they give us and the […]
It’s not surprising that the Wall Street Journal and the financial industry has called for CFPB Director Chopra’s firing. But it’s also not surprising that groups that work for the benefit of consumers have not echoed that call.
Here (behind paywall but a short version is available here). Excerpt: “We have a lot of investigations in the pipeline,” Chopra said. “There is a ton of work that is moving forward, but I’m really hopeful that no matter what the future holds, there is going to be strong support for some of our rulemakings.”
Ian Ayres of Yale and Gregory Klass of Georgetown have written How to Use the New Restatement of Consumer Contracts: A Guide for Judges. Here’s the abstract: In the absence of major legislation or regulatory action, U.S. consumers will continue to look to courts and the common law for protection when businesses engage in unfair and […]
On February 7, CFPB General Counsel Seth Frotman gave a talk at the University of Michigan, The Federal General Counsel, Law, and Our Democracy at a Crossroads. The entire speech is worth a read, but I want to quote one part that describes Frotman’s view of what the CFPB should do and provides a test […]
In some recent postings, I’ve focused on what the Trump administration will do on consumer protection, but I don’t want to lose sight of what the people who served in the CFPB, FTC, and a variety of other agencies did during the last four years to protect consumers. Consumers are much better off for their […]