Recently, we flagged an excellent segment from John Oliver on credit reporting. In light of that piece, consider this case, now on appeal to the Seventh Circuit: Toyota Motor Credit Corp. believed Jeffrey Brill owed Toyota an outstanding debt on a car lease. Toyota reported that debt to Trans Union. In fact, Brill’s name on the lease […]
The gap between rich and poor, life expectancy, and social security benefits are discussed in this article by Josh Zumbrun, which in turn discusses recent studies by a Stanford University economist and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Here is an excerpt of Zumbrun's article: A growing body of research in recent years points to the striking fact […]
When policymakers and journalists talk about college admissions (as they often do this time of year, because it's admission season), it tends to sound like this, Fivethirtyeight recounts: High school seniors spend months visiting colleges; writing essays; wrangling letters of recommendation; and practicing, taking and retaking an alphabet soup of ACTs, SATs and AP exams. […]
Check out this ominous piece from the Wall St. Journal, "How Private Is Your Tax Return?" which discusses the privacy practices of private preparers and tax software regarding filers' private information.
Catherine Martin Christopher of Texas Tech has written Mobile Banking: The Answer for the Unbanked in America? 65 Catholic University Law Review, (2015 ). Here is the abstract: In the U.S., the poor often lack access to mainstream banking services. Instead, they rely on expensive, poorly regulated alternatives like check cashers, payday lenders, pawn shops, and […]
What is it about presidential campaigns that brings out some of the worst examples of trademark bullying? Two years ago, we shot down bogus a trademark demand by the Ready for Hillary pre-campaign PAC, which tried to suppress Liberty Maniac's “Ready for Oligarchy” parody. (Readers of this blog may remember Liberty Maniacs (and its owner, […]
by Jeff Sovern The Hill has the story with the headline House panel passes bills to ramp up CFPB oversight. For more on why "oversight" will hurt consumers, see here and here.
Here. Here is the Executive Summary: Debt buyers, specialized debt-collection companies, purchase defaulted consumer debt from creditors such as credit card companies for pennies on the dollar. Debt buyers then attempt to collect the debt, often by suing borrowers in court. Unfortunately, because debts are typically sold to debt buyers without fully verifying the accuracy […]
Last week, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state labor law prohibits employers from forcing workers to perform their job on their feet when their tasks could be done sitting down. The ruling, which requires consideration of the totality of circumstances in determining whether seats are required for a particular job, was handed down […]
As you may have heard, on March 30, a D.C. district court threw out a designation by the federal Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) that MetLife needs to comply with special government safeguards under Dodd-Frank for entities whose "material financial distress" could "pose a threat to the financial stability of the United States." (Here's coverage […]