The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced four enforcement actions against mortgage insurers that the CFPB believes are paying improper kickbacks to mortgage lenders in exchange for business. The CFPB filed complaints alleging violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (sometimes referred to as RESPA) and proposed consent orders against the four insurance companies […]
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The Federal Trade Commission has warned operators of six websites that share information about consumers’ rental histories with landlords that they may be subject to the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The letters inform the six operators that, if they collect information on tenants and their rental history and provide that information […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday announced two winners of its contest seeking ideas to block illegal robocalls. The two winners will receive $25,000 each. Both of their solutions "focus on intercepting and filtering out illegal prerecorded calls using technology to 'blacklist' robocaller phone numbers and 'whitelist" numbers associated with acceptable incoming calls. Both proposals […]
It is widely believed that a major cause of the financial crisis and economic collapse that began in 2008 was the extension of home loans to people who could not afford them. The Clinton and Bush Administrations have been criticized for promoting policies of loose home lending backed by federal guarantees. Today, it's harder for […]
Following up on Brian's post yesterday about employment discimination against smokers, consider California's proposed ban on smoking in apartment buildings and other attached dwellings, discussed here by the Huffington Post (with a headline framing the ban critically) and here by the San Francisco Chronicle (with a more positive take). Public health measure? Unfair punishment for […]
by Brian Wolfman At this blog, we have covered issues of employment discrimination. Our posts have mainly concerned employment discrimination on the basis of someone's characteristic or status. But employers sometimes discriminate against prospective or current employees based on behavior, such as whether the prospective or current employee is a tobacco user. Apparently, an increasing […]
It's not Groundhog Day, but, yes, you've heard this story before. During the presidential election campaign, student loan interest rates were going to double unless Congress acted to keep them low (3.4%), and Congress acted. And, now if Congress doesn't act by July 1, rates will double. Read about it here, or check out this […]
A few days ago, we posted about the cert petition pending in the Supreme Court in Whirlpool Corp. v. Glazer. In that case, the plaintiffs allege that their Whirlpool washing machines have a design defect that makes them prone to mold and noxious odors. The Sixth Circuit decision had affirmed class certification. Whirlpool's cert petition […]
Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder testified recently that the big banks are too big to prosecute? (Go here as well.) U.S. PIRG's Ed Meirzwinski poses a possible solution: If some of the banks are too big to be held accountable under law, maybe the law needs to break them up.
For the radio program "This American Life," Chana Joffe-Walt has written "Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America." Here are a few stats cited in Joffe-Wait's essay: (1) In West Virginia, 9% of all working-age people (people between 18 and 64) receive federal disability benefits. (2) In some U.S. counties, that figure […]