That's the topic of These Professors Make More Than a Thousand Bucks an Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers, a ProPublica piece by Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott. The sub-title of the piece summarizes its thesis: "The economists are leveraging their academic prestige with secret reports justifying corporate concentration. Their predictions are often wrong and consumers pay the price." […]
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MarketWatch has a new article explaining why forced arbitration provisions have keep students at for-profit colleges from "get[ting] a Trump University-type outcome" when the students have alleged that their schools have defrauded them. The article also discusses the Department of Education's new rule cutting federal funding to schools that use forced arbitration provisions with their […]
From an op-ed in today's Times, Climate Change in Trump’s Age of Ignorance, by Robert N. Proctor (behind paywall): [S]science was one of the instruments used by Big Tobacco to carry out its denial (and distraction) campaign. Cigarette makers had met at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on Dec. 14, 1953, to plan […]
Associated Press reports: New York's attorney general says President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors. The deal announced Friday by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would settle two class-action lawsuits in California and a civil suit filed by Schneiderman. […]
The Department of Justice plays a role in consumer protection. So for that reason (and there are plenty of others), our readers may want to meet our next attorney general (assuming Mr. Trump's nominee is confirmed). See this article by Ari Berman.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced a request for information regarding consumer access to financial records: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides for consumer rights to access financial account and account-related data in usable electronic form. The [CFPB] is seeking comments from the public about consumer access to such information, including […]
Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began accepting mortgage complaints in 2012, it has received more than 12,500 mortgage complaints from servicemembers, veterans, and their families. In a new report, the CFPB reviews and analyzes about 1,800 of those complaints related to mortgage refinancing. The report finds that veterans complain that "the solicitations and advertisements they […]
The Federal Trade Commission has a new financial readiness website designed for mobile devices to help members of the military community navigate personal financial decisions in light of the unique challenges they face, such as frequent relocations and deployment. The FTC's provides the details, here.
The IRS has finalized a proposed rule issued in 2014 removing the three-year nonpayment testing period from the list of “events” for determining when debt had been discharged for purposes of issuing a Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt, to taxpayers. Prior to the change in the rule, individuals would receive a 1099-C after three years, […]
Read Americans Blame Obesity on Willpower, Despite Evidence It’s Genetic by Gina Kolata.