by Brian Wolfman Federal prescription drug oversight was significantly deregulated by the Food and Drug Modernization Act of 1997 (FDAMA), which was signed by President Clinton on November 21, 1997. Among other things, section 127 of FDAMA eliminated FDA authority over drug compounding companies, leaving regulatory oversight to state law. In theory, compounding involves only the […]
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In the new tax law that went into effect on January 1, capital income tax rates on certain high-income taxpayers went from 15% to 20%. When you add in the new 3.8% Medicare surtax on net investment income, which includes capital gains, you get an overall 23.8% capital income tax rate for high-income taxpayers. (High-income […]
According to its sponsors — dozens of consumer groups and government agencies — "National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is a coordinated campaign that encourages consumers nationwide to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better-informed decisions. NCPW 2013 will take place March 3 through March 9, 2013." Go to this comprehensive website for […]
Maybe this is slightly off-topic here, but I have an opinion piece up at The Huffington Post reacting to Attorney General Eric Holder's bombshell too-big-to-jail comments yesterday. If you haven't heard, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that some banks may be too big to prosecute, and Congress should consider doing something about it. In case you missed it, […]
by Brian Wolfman Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers are entitled to annual free credit reports from the three mega-credit reporting companies — Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. That's good because it gives consumers a chance to see their reports and try to get them corrected when they are wrong. (And they are often […]
We have posted repeatedly on increasing income and wealth inequality in the United States (for instance, go here, here, and here). It turns out that not only is wealth inequality increasing, but Americans believe that wealth inequality is a lot less pronounced than it actually is. Watch this powerful presentation here or by cllcking on […]
by Paul Alan Levy A status conference was held today in connection with Maged Moughni’s motion to vacate the impermissible prior restraint that Judge Kathleen McDonald issued a month ago, forbidding Moughni to discuss in public the class action lawsuit brought against McDonald’s for selling haram Chicken McNuggets that had been advertised as halal, or […]
That's the name of this article by Thomas Stipanowich and J. Ryan Lamare. Here's the abstract (with my italics added on the reference to consumer and products-liability arbitration): As attorneys for the world’s most visible clients, corporate counsel played a key role in the transformation of American conflict resolution in the late Twentieth Century. In […]
That's the title of this new report about car-title loans authored by the Center for Responsible Lending and the Consumer Federation of America. Car-title loans are small loans secured by the title to the borrower's car. According to the report, each year, consumers pay $3.6 billion in interest on these loans for only $1.6 billion […]
The Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue ("TACD") a coalition of consumer organizations in both Europe and North America, has fired a shot across the bow of both the Obama Administration and the leadership of the EU, warning that "improving trade" through the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ("TTIP") should not be a smokescreen for watering down […]