Here. (HT: Matt Bruckner). Excerpt: After studying overdraft fees for more than three years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is leaning against subjecting banks to tough new rules that would cap the size of charges or limit how frequently they can be imposed on consumers, said two people briefed on the agency’s work. More likely, […]
Two internal reports released by the Department of Transportation identify a series of failings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (a part of the Department) that allowed millions of defective GM cars to go unrepaired for more than a decade. The ignition switch could suddenly turn off, stalling the engine and disabling the airbags. […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reporting on its just-completed study of advertisements for reverse mortgages: Ads for reverse mortgages are found on television, radio, in print, and on the internet, and many ads feature celebrity spokespeople discussing the benefits of reverse mortgages without mentioning risks. We looked closely at many ads and found incomplete […]
"As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) considers new rules to rein in predatory practices in payday and similar types of lending, Senator Merkley and 31 of his Senate colleagues expressed their support today for the initial steps the agency has taken and urged the agency to issue the strongest possible rules to combat the […]
Proving yet again that proposed "free trade" deals are about a lot more than trade, Wikileaks has released a set of documents showing how the proposed "Trade in Services Agreement," or TISA, "would take a major step towards deregulating financial industries, and could affect everything from local maritime and air traffic rules to domestic regulations […]
A joint report by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency concludes that "[d]espite vigorous new regulatory controls adopted in the wake of the recent financial crisis, financial lending has only become riskier." The report cites banks' leveraged lending, which involves making a loan and then […]
The Huffington Post has the story.
The Los Angeles Times carries an op-ed about a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the City of Inglewood, California, against a local resident who has taken portions of the city’s own recordings of public meetings to highlight conduct by the city’s elected mayor that he deemed inappropriate. The defendant has a web site that lambastes […]
After years of laws permitting more and more government surveillance of cell phone and email users' private communications, this week Congress finally passed a law setting limits, the USA Freedom Act. President Obama signed it yesterday. Among other provisions, the law requires the government to seek judicial approval to search the data, which will no […]
Sternlight has been writing about arbitration for years, and has some interesting comments about the Supreme Court's opinion last week in Sharif at the Indisputably blog. An excerpt: The Supreme Court’s most recent Article III decision, Wellness Int’l v. Sharif (2015), raises substantial questions as to the constitutional legitimacy of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 […]