Wenli Li of the Philadelphia Fed, Ishani Tewari of the Yale School of Management, and Michelle J. White of California, San Diego's Department of Economics and the National Bureau of Economic Research have written Using Bankruptcy to Reduce Foreclosures: Does Strip-Down of Mortgages Affect the Supply of Mortgage Credit? Here's the abstract: We assess the […]
Check out this video of her speech — it's a great overview of what's wrong, both substantively and procedurally, with the Dodd-Frank amendment incorporated in the spending bill the House passed last night. (The speech was delivered Wednesday, before the House's vote Thursday.)
A productive week for the CFPB. The agency took enforcement actions against two debt-relief outfits who, according to the agency, charged illegal fees and made false promises about rates and/or results, among other nefarious activity. Read the details here. Separately, following up on its report focusing on the effect of unpaid medical debt on consumer […]
Colorado's cap on payday loan interest rates has had some success, Lauren explains, but it's not enough: she calls for a stricter cap and front-end underwriting requirements that ensure that borrowers are actually able to repay their loans. Read her whole piece here.
A Pennsylvania appeals court yesterday reversed the sale of a home that was triggered by an unpaid tax bill of $6.30 in 2004, which with interest had increased to $235 by the time the property was sold at auction in 2011. The court held that the auction sale of the $280,000 home was not valid […]
Ready for this year's holiday gift-buying binge? Before you set out to shop for kids, read U.S. PIRG's 29th annual edition of Trouble in Toyland. Go here for the excutive summary. The report surveys the dangers to kids posed by toys. The report covers toxins (such as lead and arsenic), choking hazards, excessively loud toys, […]
The Boston Globe brings us word of a series of email exchanges in which a Harvard Business School professor (with whom I am acquainted) seems to have gone a bit overboard in invoking the treble-damages provision of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, chapter 93A. UPDATE: The professor has apologized for "what I said and how […]
I have longed argued that the problem with forced arbitration goes beyond whether it is “fair,” whether the consumer understands it, or whether it is cost efficient, here, here, and here. The real problem with forced arbitration is the affect it has on our system of justice. Recently, Professor Maria Glover of Georgetown University Law […]
That is the name of this article by law professor Mark Totten. Here is the abstract: No one played a more vital role responding to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression than a small band of state attorneys general (AGs). Yet this story has never been told nor its implications considered. For more […]
The Affordable Care Act has taken some hits in the courts (but so far has survived the biggest attacks), and it is not terribly popular. But is it working as it was intended? Yes, according to this piece by Sarah Kliff. An excerpt: [I]f you look beyond the political fights, the picture looks very different [from […]