by Jeff Sovern I just finished listening to the audio version of Barney Frank's autobiography, Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, which Frank reads himself. I listened to it to learn more about consumer law–Frank was so involved in creating the CFPB that the statute doing so carries his […]
Jason Scott Johnston of Virginia has written Do Product Bans Help Consumers? Questioning the Economic Foundations of Dodd-Frank Mortgage Regulation. Here is the abstract: The system of residential mortgage contact regulation enacted by the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 has been justified as necessary to prevent lenders from […]
Jim Hawkins of Houston has asked me to post the following: The AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for its program co-sponsored by the Section on Women in Legal Education during the AALS 2016 Annual Meeting. The papers from the program will be published in […]
Fivethirtyeight.com has a thoughtful analysis this week about "equal pay day," which is the day on which the earnings of the average woman who worked continuously from the beginning of 2014 would catch up to the earnings of the average man who started at the same time but stopped at the end of 2014. (Put […]
…is the message of a Public Citizen post yesterday on Buzzfeed, which points to five reasons that a disaster of the same magnitude could recur. The problems, mainly, are a lack of safeguards and the absence of accountability. Read the whole analysis here.
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it will host a workshop "to examine competition, consumer protection, and economic issues raised by the proliferation of online and mobile peer-to peer business platforms in certain sectors of the economy, often referred to as the sharing economy.” The workshop will take place on June 9 in Washington, […]
The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has issued a lengthy opinion—a whopping 138 pages—holding that General Motors is largely immune from claims based on its pre-bankruptcy conduct, including claims involving faulty ignition switches. The bankruptcy proceedings resulted in the creation of a new company, General Motors LLC (“New GM”), which bought […]
Here. An excerpt: To opponents, the bill might better be named the "Data Insecurity and Breach Hiding Act." Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, says its passage "would be a giant step backward for consumer protection." Even more emphatic is John Breyault of the National Consumers League. "Only in Washington would they […]
by Jeff Sovern Marc James Ayers of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has posted an item, Can the CFPB really prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements? in which he wrote: [S]hould the CFPB independently decide to adopt regulations limiting or prohibiting the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements relating to consumer finance, that regulation could be seen as an […]
The Dodd-Frank law shouldn't be the end of Congress's financial reform efforts, argued Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a speech today at the Levy Economics Institute. Sen. Warren called for specific additional regulatory measures, including the breaking up of big banks, closing regulatory loopholes, imposing tougher punishments for wrongdoing, and limiting the Fed's emergency lending powers […]