As we've discussed, poor people across the country face incarceration for minor offenses because they can't pay fines and fees. (See here, for instance.) On a more hopeful note, check out the recent op-ed in the Post by Texas municipal court Judge Ed Spillane. Entitled "Why I refuse to send people to jail for failure […]
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Following up on Brian's illuminating post earlier this week about the widening gap in life expectancy between the rich and the poor, two other articles discussing health and the economic divide are worth a read. First, the New York Times, drawing on the same research that Brian flagged, concludes: "The Rich Live Longer Everywhere. For the […]
Bartik and Nelson have written Credit Reports as Résumés: The Incidence of Pre-Employment Credit Screening. Here is the abstract: We study recent bans on employers' use of credit reports to screen job applicants – a practice that has been popular among employers, but controversial for its perceived disparate impact on racial minorities. Exploiting geographic, temporal, and […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued a report that found that attempts by online lenders to debit payments from a consumer’s checking account add a steep, hidden cost to online payday loans. Half of online borrowers rack up an average of $185 in bank penalties because at least one debit attempt overdrafts or fails. […]
Earlier this year, we flagged Maryland's pending legislation (H.B. 131) to protect the rights of consumers to speak up — critically, if they like — about the businesses they have done business with. California passed a similar bill in 2014. So did the U.S. Senate in 2015; the federal bill now awaits action in the […]
Patients of Dr. Allen Sossan of South Dakota claim that he performed unnecessary medical procedures or performed procedures improperly on them. They sued Dr. Sossan and the hospitals that credentialed him. One of the claims is that the hospitals wrongfully credentialed Dr. Sossan to practice medicine at their institutions despite knowing that he had lost […]
Recently, we flagged an excellent segment from John Oliver on credit reporting. In light of that piece, consider this case, now on appeal to the Seventh Circuit: Toyota Motor Credit Corp. believed Jeffrey Brill owed Toyota an outstanding debt on a car lease. Toyota reported that debt to Trans Union. In fact, Brill’s name on the lease […]
The gap between rich and poor, life expectancy, and social security benefits are discussed in this article by Josh Zumbrun, which in turn discusses recent studies by a Stanford University economist and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Here is an excerpt of Zumbrun's article: A growing body of research in recent years points to the striking fact […]
When policymakers and journalists talk about college admissions (as they often do this time of year, because it's admission season), it tends to sound like this, Fivethirtyeight recounts: High school seniors spend months visiting colleges; writing essays; wrangling letters of recommendation; and practicing, taking and retaking an alphabet soup of ACTs, SATs and AP exams. […]
Check out this ominous piece from the Wall St. Journal, "How Private Is Your Tax Return?" which discusses the privacy practices of private preparers and tax software regarding filers' private information.