Alexander Ash has written It’s Your Money and We Want It Now: Regulation of the Structured Settlement Factoring Industry in the Era of Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here is the abstract: Calls for reform in the structured settlement factoring industry have recently grown louder across the nation. However, those calls ring hollow and […]
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The Post reported last week: Three of the biggest freight railroads operating in the U.S. have told the government they won’t meet a 2018 deadline to start using safety technology intended to prevent accidents like the deadly derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia last May. Several other railroads are reporting the same. The technology […]
From FiveThirtyEight, a fascinating look at the nation's unemployment system, here. Comparing the health of state unemployment systems now against their positions prior to the 2008 financial collapse, the article argues that these systems have not recovered adequately to meet the needs of the next recession. What will that mean? "[U]nderfunded unemployment systems can have […]
Gary Neustadter, of Santa Clara University School of Law, recently published an interesting empirical look at how similar legal proceedings are dealt with at the trial court level. “Randomly Distributed Trial Court Justice: A Case Study and Siren from the Consumer Bankruptcy World,” examines how virtually identical legal claims can result in randomly distributed justice. […]
The Post explains: The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a key part of President Obama’s ambitious proposal to limit carbon emissions and reduce global warming while the plan is challenged. . . . The court’s decision does not address the merits of the challenge but indicates justices think the states have raised serious questions. The […]
The Wall Street Journal reports: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, preparing to roll out rulesaimed at reining in high-interest payday loans, is jawboning banks and credit unions to provide better alternatives for borrowers in need of small, short-term loans. Richard Cordray, director of the watchdog agency, said it is discussing ways to make it easier for […]
The Washington Post reports: Congress is considering a freeze on the airline industry’s shrinking coach seats, an unprecedented move that could lead to a more comfortable and humane flying experience. A proposed amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill would direct the federal government to set minimum seat-size standards for the first time, […]
Available from Amazon here. I have only just started reading it, but here's a description from Chris: FTC Privacy Law and Policy is a broad-ranging primer on the FTC’s consumer protection mission. It is the first hundred-year history of the agency’s consumer protection activities, and it links consumer cases to modern internet privacy efforts. The book offers […]
Check out today's outstanding piece in Slate, subtitled "What it’s like making less than $13 an hour to serve $13 beers at one of the biggest games on Earth." It covers not only the author's experience behind the counter, but also the economics of stadium financing and the extraordinary lengths to which many of the concession […]
"We find that the benefits to economic growth are even smaller than those projected with full-employment models, and are negative for Japan and the United States. More important, we find that the TPP will likely lead to losses in employment and increases in inequality," summarize the authors. The report, called "Trading Down: Unemployment, Inequality and Other Risks of the Trans-Pacific […]