David A. Hoffman of Temple has written From Promise to Form: How Contracting Online Changes Consumers. Here is the abstract: I hypothesize that different experiences with online contracting have led some consumers to see contracts — both online and offline — in distinctive ways. Experimenting on a large, nationally representative, sample, this paper provides evidence […]
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch of Georgia and Margaret S. Williams of the Federal Judicial Center have written Repeat Players in Multidistrict Litigation: The Social Network. Here's the abstract: To promote pretrial efficiency, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has transferred 36 percent of the entire federal courts’ civil caseload to transferee judges for coordinated handling. Transferee […]
Here. Excerpt, reporting on a study by Lendedu: When Lendedu talked to 477 undergraduate and graduate students at three Bay Area campuses, it found that just 6 percent of them knew how long they would be repaying the debt. Only 8 percent knew the interest rate on their loan. * * * More than 90 percent of the […]
Here. (HT: Gregory Gauthier)
BBC News reports: HSBC has reached a $470m [] settlement with the US government and states related to dubious mortgage lending and foreclosure practices that contributed to the financial crisis. The agreement includes a $100m fine and $370m in consumer relief to borrowers. Investigations began in 2010 after HSBC was found to be signing off […]
Read this essay by acting FDA commissioner Stephen Ostroff on what the FDA is doing to get safe and effective generic drugs on the market promptly. The agency's efforts are important because the cost of generic drugs generally is far less than the cost of brand-name drugs. In particular, as Ostroff explains, the entry of a "first […]
Financially speaking, that is. Last Friday's episode of NPR's Planet Money goes inside the telemarketing scam based on the premise that workers can work from home and make a great living. The episode includes audio from an actual sales pitch to a woman taken in by the scam. The tactics are awful, but revealing. And […]
Despite the uptick in jobs over the last couple of years, one key respect in which the economic recovery is weak has been its failure to raise workers' wages. This week's January jobs report from the Labor Department is more encouraging on that front, reports the NYT: Last month, average hourly earnings rose by 0.5 percent, […]
Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) and Senator Al Franken (MN) introduced a bill Thursday that would strictly limit the companies' ability to impose arbitration clauses on consumers and workers. The Restoring Statutory Rights Act would prevent civil rights cases, employment disputes and other crucial lawsuits from being forced into arbitration. A New York Times article on […]
The Washington Post reports today that the food industry is pressuring Congress to block vermont' GMO-labeling law before it goes into effect in July. "The food industry wants Congress to pre-empt Vermont’s law and bar mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods before it goes into effect. They argue that GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are […]