by Paul Alan Levy A few months ago, I blogged about an important Sixth Circuit ruling on the issue of online anonymity. Signature Management Team v. Doe, 876 F.3d 831 (2017), came close to endorsing the Dendrite approach to deciding whether a defendant who has been sued for allegedly inappropriate behavior should be denied the […]
Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued its quarterly report on U.S. household debt and credit. It found that—for the 16th straight quarter—aggregate household debt balances increased in the second quarter of 2018. Debt from mortgage loans, auto loans, and credit cards increased, while outstanding student loan debt decreased. On the bright […]
That's the headline of this article by Kevin Breuninger's piece. Here are the key take-aways of Breuninger's piece: Sen Warren proposes a new bill that would ban members of Congress and the White House staff from owning individual stocks. As an apparent alternative, the legislation would create "conflict-free investment opportunities for federal officials with new investment […]
Michael Hiltzik's column, titled Bankruptcy is hitting more older Americans, pointing to a retirement crisis in the making, surveys a new report about the growing number of bankruptcies filed by older people. One reason for this trend is that retired workers generally no longer have company-paid pensions. He notes that a sizable percentage of American workers were […]
The Economic Policy Institute has issued a report that looks at trends in chief executive officer (CEO) compensation. It looked at stock options realized, plus salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, and long-term incentive payouts. It found: In 2017 the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation, a 17.6 percent […]
Gerrit De Geest of Washington University in St. Louis has written Rents: How Marketing Causes Inequality. Chapter One is available here. Here is the abstract: This working paper contains the introduction and first chapter of a forthcoming book on the relationship between marketing and inequality. I argue that the dramatic rise of income inequality since 1970 […]
The Military Lending Act (MLA) is aimed at protecting service members from predatory loans and unfair financial products and services. (For instance, the MLA prohibits the use of arbitration agreements in most consumer credit contracts entered into by service members and their dependents.) But it appears that the Trump Administration wants to undermine the MLA. At the […]
Remember last May's decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis? There, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act demands enforcement of arbitration clauses against workers, including class-action and collective-action waivers contained in arbitration clauses, notwithstanding the Act's savings clause and the National Labor Relations Act's protection for workers to engage in "concerted activities." This article by […]
by Jeff Sovern This isn't consumer law, strictly speaking, but I thought readers of the blog might be interested to know that the Trump administration's Treasury Department thinks banking is not a financial service. That interpretation has the effect of cutting taxes paid by banks. David Sirota has the story, The Trump Administration Just Found a […]
Pew Charitable Trusts reports that consumers are exposed to potentially harmful financial products from the nation’s fragmented regulatory system. "Innovation can spur growth and competition in financial markets and provide new and better options for customers. But without careful, balanced regulation, it can also present serious risks to consumers,” the report contends. The report also […]