Category Archives: Uncategorized

Will higher gas prices wipe out the middle-class gains, if any, from the tax cut? And is that Trump’s fault?

Ben White at Politico has written this piece on surging gas prices and whether the cost to consumers is gobbling up gains, if any, to the middle class from the tax cut. Here's an excerpt: President Donald Trump is hoping a wave of tax-cut-fueled economic euphoria will boost his approval ratings and his party’s political fortunes this fall. A […]

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will authorize banks to compete with payday lenders

This NY Times article by Stacy Cowley and Emily Flitter explains that  A federal regulator on Wednesday encouraged banks to offer small, short-term loans to people in need of emergency cash, the Trump administration’s latest relaxation of banking regulations and a rare moment of common ground with consumer groups that oppose payday lending. The Office of […]

“Trump signs repeal of auto-loan policy that targeted racial bias,” and Mick Mulvaney tells us why that’s a good thing.

Read Steven Lane's piece in The Hill entitled Trump signs repeal of auto-loan policy that targeted racial bias. Acting CFPB director Mick Mulvaney is pleased. In a press release issued today, Mulvaney "thanks the President and the Congress" for nixing the CFPB's policy because the agency had acted "outside of federal statutes." "As an executive agency," Mulvaney says, "we […]

Supreme Court holds employers can use arbitration agreements to ban collective employment actions

In a 5-4 opinion this morning, the Supreme Court continued its string of pro-arbitration decisions. In Epic Systems v. Lewis, the Court held that arbitration agreements that ban collective proceedings do not violate the federal labor laws’ protection of concerted worker action. Instead, the Court held, the Federal Arbitration Act requires enforcement of those bans […]

The Pope address financial regulation

The Vatican called for "a new regulation of financial activities" in on Thursday a broad and harsh critique of the international financial system that emphasized the need for higher ethical standards since the housing market crash in the last decade. The new document released by the Vatican, approved by Pope Francis, calls out the post-2008 […]

Will Congress demand disclosure of litigation-funding sources?

Many of our readers are consumer class-action litigators or interested in litigation more generally. So I thought it was worth mentioning Senator Chuck Grassley's legislation, introduced last week, that would require disclosure of outside litigation funding in multi-district litigation and in class actions generally (that is, in class actions both inside and outside multi-district litigation). […]