by Jeff Sovern I recently listened to the audio version of a book authored, by two Nobel Prize winners, George A. Akerlof & Robert J. Shiller, titled Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception. Their basic thesis is that while free markets have the salutary effect of encouraging sellers to provide things that consumers want, free […]
Maybe not, according to this NY Times article. Excerpt: [S]ome argue that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has become perhaps the most business-friendly court in recent history. A 2013 study by Lee Epstein of Washington University in St. Louis, William M. Landes of the University of Chicago Law School and […]
Joining a growing consensus of appellate courts that have addressed this issue in recent years, the Alaska Supreme Court held last week that foreclosure counts as "debt collection" and therefore firms in the business of foreclosing on homeowners are "debt collectors" subject to the restrictions of the FDCPA. As the court explained, "foreclosing on property, […]
The Hill reports: Government debt collectors could only robocall a person three times per month and would have to stop calling when asked to do so, according to a draft proposal at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC released more details of the draft proposal circulated among the commissioners last month. The new details were […]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has circulated for consideration by the full Commission a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking "to ensure consumers have the tools they need to make informed choices about how and whether their data is used and shared by their broadband providers." The proposal would apply the privacy requirements of the Communications […]
Resolving an ambiguity in the District of Columbia's Anti-SLAPP law, the DC Court of Appeals held today in Doe No. 1 v. Burke that a defendant who succeeds in a special motion to quash a subpoena for the defendant's identifying information is presumptively entitled to have attorney fees awarded, absent special circumstances rendering such an […]
Both cute and informative about the risks to consumers in the mobile economy. The takeaway: Federal regulations to protect consumers aren't evolving fast enough to keep up with technological advances. Watch it here.
As Fivethirtyeight explains, February saw the biggest one-month increase in the size of the labor force in over a year and continues the longest streak of gains in eight years. If this is a trend and not a blip, it's a significant reversal: Labor force participation has been a dark cloud hanging over the economy […]
An article by Paul Farhi in this morning’s Washington Post discusses a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against the Timothy O'Brien, a financial author who wrote a book about Trump's business career. Among other things, the book questioned whether Trump is quite as wealthy as he claims; the author’s opinion was that Trump had exaggerated […]
The Food and Drug Administration and Amarin, the manufacturer of a prescription fish-oil drug, have settled Amarin's lawsuit challenging the FDA's authority to restrict the company from touting its product for an unapproved use. The Washington Post reports that the FDA said the settlement is “specific to this particular case and situation,” and did not […]