by Jeff Sovern AP is running a story, Under Trump, a Voice for the American Consumer Goes Silent, making a point that this blog has frequently noted. Excerpt: A review of a CFPB database obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information request shows that the bureau issued an average of two to four […]
by Jeff Sovern So Reuters reports here. This report is consistent with the view that businesses that behave properly suffer when competitors cut corners and so enforcement of consumer protection laws benefits not only consumers but companies with consciences.
by Jeff Sovern Lately, I've been thinking to myself about how so little has leaked out on what's going on at the Bureau, especially compared to the White House. But that didn't stop Acting Director Mulvaney today from attacking CFPB staff for leaking, according to Sylvan Lane in The Hill. Here's an excerpt: Mulvaney . […]
Law prof Benjamin Zipursky has written The Monsanto Lecture: Online Defamation, Legal Concepts, and the Good Samaritan. Here's the abstract: Federal and state courts around the country – aided by academics on almost all sides – have completely misread the Communications Decency Act [“CDA”] § 230(c). This widely cited provision was designed to protect Internet service […]
Law prof Jim Hawkins has written Protecting Consumers as Sellers. Here's the abstract (with a few words added at the end by me): When the majority of modern contract and consumer protection laws were written in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, consumers almost always acted as buyers, and businesses almost always acted as sellers. As a […]
Read this NY Times op-ed by Georgetown Law's John Brooks entitled Don’t Let the G.O.P. Dismantle Obama’s Student Loan Reforms. Here's an excerpt (but read the whole thing): One of the most important — but least known — achievements of the Obama administration was the expansion of the income-driven repayment program for federal student loans. The program […]
Shahar Dillbary of Alabama and Griffin Sims Edwards of the University of Alabama at Birmingham – Department of Marketing, Industrial Distribution & Economics have written An Empirical Analysis of Sexual Orientation Discrimination, University of Chicago Law Review, 2018 Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: This study is the first to empirically demonstrate widespread discrimination across the United States based on […]
by Jeff Sovern On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will hear from CFPB Interim Chief Mick Mulvaney about the CFPB. Here are some questions I hope get asked of Mulvaney, in no particular order: Wells Fargo. You have said that complaints to the CFPB should guide your actions. It appears from the public database […]
Mick Mulvaney, the director of Office of Management and Budget whom President Donald Trump’s has running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sinxe CFPB director Richard Cordray stepped down, has given big pay raises to the deputies he has hired to help him run the CFPB, according to salary records obtained by The Associated Press. Mulvaney […]
We've blogged many times on the idea of taxing sugary drinks to stem the obesity/diabetes epidemic. Go, for instance, here and here. Critics claimed that these so-called soda taxes would do little to improve health while hurting grocers, particularly small grocers, who would get pummeled by consumers cutting back on purchases of sugary drinks. Nonetheless some cities enacted […]