Here. Excerpt: Even before the November election, warning lights were flashing. Jeb Hensarling, the Republican member of Congress who chairs the House financial services committee, has declared he won’t rest until he tosses post-financial crisis reforms like the Dodd-Frank Act “on to the trash heap of history”. Hensarling is also a fierce opponent of the […]
National Mortgage News reports: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added its voice Tuesday to a chorus of other regulators in calling for sustainable foreclosure relief when the Home Affordable Modification Program expires at yearend. The bureau released "guiding principles" for mortgage servicers and investors that were almost identical to those described in a white paper […]
In Meyer v. Kalanick and Uber, the named plaintiff, Spencer Meyer, alleges that Travis Kalanick orchestrated an antitrust conspiracy arising from the algorithm that co-defendant Uber uses to set Uber ride prices. The plaintiffs sued in federal court in New York. Uber and Kalanick moved to compel arbitration saying Mr. Meyer agreed to arbitrate when he […]
This webpage explains what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau believes it has accomplished over its first five years. Go here or click below for a CFPB video describing the purposes and (brief) history of the agency. (The video features Elizabeth Warren and Richard Cordray.)
by Jeff Sovern Smart guns–guns that block anyone other than their owner from shooting them– would save lives. Children would not be able to grab them and shoot themselves by accident. People couldn't turn them on their owners. Smart gun technology exists, just as iPhones can be personalized using fingerprints and passcodes. But gun manufacturers won't sell […]
Michele Singletary, the Washington Post's consumer reporter, is doing a series of articles assessing the first five years of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The first in the series is an interview with the agency's director Richard Cordray.
Chris Hoofnagle has posted online Chapter 6, titled Online Privacy, from his excellent book, Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy (I'm still making my way as my schedule permits through the book and hope to post a review someday). Here's the abstract: This is the full text of Chapter 6 (Online Privacy) from Federal Trade […]
The Fourth Circuit has struck down the N. Carolina voter I.D. law, finding that that it was conceived with discriminatory intent. The opinion is here. The court said this: In response to claims that intentional racial discrimination animated [the N.C. General Assembly's action], the State offered only meager justifications. Although the new provisions target African Americans […]
Journalist Bob Sullivan emailed Advance Cash Services to elicit a comment on a consumer's story of how she had been dunned for a phantom debt. He didn't get the comment, but the collector sent him an email demanding he repay a payday loan that he never took out, for $935.76. His story is here.
Back in February, Gregory Gauthier wondered why Starbucks changed its arbitration clause. Now, he writes: I was looking through the Q2 2016 Consumer Arbitration Statistics for the American Arbitration Association, and I found a case filed against Starbucks on January 18, 2016 (case #011600001646, row 5053). The Colorado pro se consumer in that case brought […]