A thought-provoking op-ed in The Hill argues that a perspective is missing from the debate about whether government regulation and informed consumer choice is the more appropriate means of addressing public health issues such as obesity. The problem with the debate is the uncritical acceptance of the premise that consumers are being effectively informed. The […]
In certain types of bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor who is seeking relief must propose a plan to pay off a portion (or sometimes all) of his debt over a period of years. If the Bankruptcy Court confirms such a plan, dissatisfied parties (such as creditors) can appeal. But what if the court rejects a debtor's […]
Beyond the pending challenge to the Affordable Care Act tax-credit system in King v. Burwell, which threatens the viability of the Act, law professor Andy Grewall writes in a new article that there are other Lurking Challenges to the ACA Tax Credit Regulations. Here is the abstract: The ongoing King v. Burwell controversy has focused […]
… is how this piece in the Huffington Post characterized General Electric’s announcement last month that it would sell GE Capital, thus getting mostly out of the banking business and back to its core manufacturing business. This week, the New Yorker has this similarly laudatory analysis, which details the rise and fall of GE as […]
We've written before about the dangers of transporting oil by rail car. On Friday, DOT issued new regulations for trains carrying oil, requiring new brake systems and requiring cars to be designed for this purpose (as opposed to the old ones, designed for hauling corn syrup). Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s take, calling the rules […]
Dennis D. Hirsch of Capital has written That's Unfair! Or Is It? Big Data, Discrimination and the FTC's Unfairness Authority, 103 Kentucky Law Journal (2015). Here is the abstract: Big data and data analytics (“big data”) can produce many social and economic benefits. But they can also generate privacy injuries and harmful discrimination. The governance of […]
The state senate is considering a bill that would eliminate requirements that debt buyers have detailed information about the debt they buy before suing to enforce the debt in court. The bill passed out of committee over the objections of consumer advocates that the bill would facilitate abusive lawsuits against consumers. The Raleigh News & […]
You may recall an excellent and eye-opening series from the Washington Post in the fall of 2013 showing how a combination of relatively small tax underpayments could add up, with fees and penalties, to losing your home in the nation's capital. (Here's Brian's blog about it, with links.) A class action was filed in September 2013 […]
We told you yesterday (see here and here) about a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, now pending in Congress, that would delay protections for service members against predatory lending. Happily, today the House Armed Services Committee removed the provision, by just a two-vote margin. The Military Times has the story. Here is Public Citizen's […]
You may recall that last September, California enacted the nation's first ban on non-disparagement clauses in consumer contracts — that is, clauses prohibiting consumers from criticizing (however truthfully) companies they do business with. Today, Representatives Darrell Issa, Eric Swalwell, Blake Farenthold, and Brad Sherman (two Democrats and two Republicans) jointly proposed in Congress the Consumer Review […]