Predatory Auto Lending Times Report: The Car Was Repossessed, but the Debt Remains

Another important story from Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery here. I can't do justice to it with a brief excerpt, but see if this makes you want to read the whole piece (which you should): More than a decade after Yvette Harris’s 1997 Mitsubishi was repossessed, she is still paying off her car loan. She […]

In rare move, feds reverse themselves on big arbitration case before the Supreme Court — that is, the Trump SG’s office takes a different position from the Obama SG’s office

I'm guessing that a lot of our readers already know about this. But if you don't, read about it here in Amy Howe's post at scotusblog. Here's an excerpt from her post: It is rare for the Office of the Solicitor General to change its position in a case before the Supreme Court after a change in […]

Article Explains How Online Sellers Can Use Big Data to Personalize Prices

Mariateresa Maggiolino of Bocconi University has written Personalized Prices in European Competition Law.  Here is the abstract: The advent of big data analysis techniques make personalized prices possible. This paper sketches a preliminary picture of this new phenomenon, first explaining how personalized prices flow from big data analysis, how personalized prices fit into the economic […]

Is the opposition to Trumpcare too weak to stop it?

That's David Leonhardt's position in this column. Here's how it starts: The Republican health care bill now sneaking its way through the Senate has a good chance of becoming law, even though it would do miserable damage. And it has a good chance partly because some of the bill’s most influential opponents have not had the […]

Law360’s Weinberger on How the Treasury’s Review of the Community Reinvestment Act Worries Critics

Here.  Excerpt: [T]he CRA only covers banks, not nonbank financial firms. That leads to an uneven playing field, said Jeffrey Naimon, a BuckleySandler LLP partner. "Banks are asking why should a national nonbank mortgage lender have no CRA but a bank have a CRA requirement?" he said. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition said it is […]

Cordray Replies to Criticism by House Financial Services Staff

Reuters covers it here, and housing Wire here.  Both stories refer to a five-page letter from the Director.  According to the Reuters' story: The [Committee staff] report said the CFPB had been an ineffective watchdog against Wells Fargo & Co, missing extensive improper sales practices and taking action only after work on the bank's unauthorized […]

More Analysis of Santander

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) has a useful discussion here on the implications of this week's Supreme Court decision in Henson v. Santander Consumer USA. NCLC's principal point is that Santander leaves open the possibility of proving that a debt buyer is a debt collector under the FDCPA's alternative definition, under which the term includes anyone whose […]

New Books by Senators Elizabeth Warren & Al Franken: The Consumer Law Perspective

by Jeff Sovern I recently listened to the audio versions of these two books, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate and Warren's This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class.  Each is read by the author. I enjoyed both thoroughly: they are inspiring, interesting, and Franken's is, as might be expected […]