As most of you likely know, Trump's Treasury Department has floated the idea of indexing capital gains to inflation, thereby reducing the tax due from owners of stocks and other investments when they sell those investments at a gain. (The administration has even suggested that this change could be done administratively, without congressional approval.) As this […]
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That's the name of this LA Times article by David Lazurus, which explains that Americans of all political stripes support a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A survey conducted for Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending shows "that an overwhelming majority of Americans — at least 80% — are concerned about the Trump administration’s […]
Senator Elizabeth Warren answers policy questions about the economy, free markets, and regulation for the Washington Post, here.
The Department of Education today proposed a new Borrower Defense Rule that would abandon important protections designed to stop for-profit colleges from forcing students to give up their right to take schools to court for wrongdoing by forcing them to arbitrate any claims. Forced arbitration provisions, together with bans on the right of students to […]
The class counsel in the NFL football class-action concussion settlement has submitted a status report (with accompanying expert analysis) indicating that, so far, the settlement is providing more benefits to more ex-NFL players (and their families) than had been anticipated when the settlement was approved by the federal courts. Among other data reported, in the […]
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell ponders the Trump Administration's choice of someone with "zero experience in the complicated world of financial regulation or consumer protection" to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Considering consumer protection more broadly, she writes: It’s bizarre. Whenever they get the chance, Republican officials seem intent on bleeding consumers dry. Or […]
by Jeff Sovern The president today issued an executive order creating a Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud within the Department of Justice. It has a large number of members, including the CFPB director and chair of the FTC. Among Its functions are to : (a) provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution […]
The Hill reports that the Mick Mulvaney has chosen Brian Johnson to be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's acting deputy director. Johnson had previously served as the CFPB’s principal policy director. He had been hired by Mulvaney last year to rein in and rebrand the controversial regulator. The full article is here.
The Washington Post recently reported on a phenomenon I had not previously been aware of: mass-mailing checks to strangers, that when cashed become high-interest loans. As a trainee at one firm described it, "basically a way of monetizing poor people." The article is here.
That's explained by columnist Michael Hiltzik in Trump's own figures show that Obamacare is working well for the vast majority of enrollees: President Trump brags that he has “gutted” the Affordable Care Act, but statistics released this week by his own Department of Health and Human Services show that it’s holding up well against his onslaught, […]