As this story in the Guardian explains, Wal-Mart has agreed in a settlement to pay the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration a 190K fine and to improve worker safety at 2,800 of its stores. Here's an excerpt: Walmart has agreed to improve safety conditions at more than 2,800 stores in 28 US states after […]
The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department "has issued subpoenas to banks and other companies that handle payments for an array of financial offerings, ramping up an investigation that has been under way for several months." The investigation reportedly is focusing on companies that process payments for online payday lenders. Read the full story.
That's the name of this opinion piece by Katrina vanden Heuvel. It piece says that, in the U.S., "[a]s of 2011, nearly half the students enrolled in four-year programs — and more than 70 percent of students in two-year programs — failed to earn their degrees within that time, with many dropping out because of […]
We have been following the litigation over swipe fees–the fees that the card companies impose on merchants each time a credit or debit card is used. Go, for instance, here and here. A major concern is that if part of the swipe fee is the product of anti-competitive behavior or legislation or regulation enacted at the behest […]
Frederik J. Zuiderveen Borgesius of the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam) has written Consent to Behavioural Targeting in European Law – What are the Policy Implications of Insights from Behavioural Economics? Here is the abstract: Behavioural targeting is the monitoring of people’s online behaviour to target advertisements to specific individuals. European law requires […]
That's the name of this new report Public Citizen. Here's Public Citizen's description of the report: A decade after reaching their peak, the quantity and cumulative value of medical malpractice payments made on behalf of doctors were at their lowest level on record in 2012, according to a new Public Citizen analyzing data from the […]
The Washington Post reports today: Traders at Bank of America willfully misled investors about the quality of the residential mortgages tucked into the securities the bank sold at the start of the financial crisis, according to separate lawsuits filed Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. . . . Justice claims […]
From time to time, news media run a story on car repair outfits that cheat consumers. Unfortunately, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of such businesses, perhaps because most consumers lack the ability to determine if they are being ripped off by their mechanics. You can find another such story here.
Quinn Curtis of Virginia has written State Foreclosure Laws and Mortgage Origination in the Subprime Market, forthcoming in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. Here's the abstract: Foreclosure procedures in some states are considerably swifter and less costly for lenders than in others. In light of the foreclosure crisis, an empirical understanding of […]
Banks don't like to offer 30-year mortages unless someone else is left holding the bag if the homeowner can't pay. That's just too long a period to depend on repayment and market stability. But a 30-year payback period, all other things equal, helps many non-wealthy consumers buy homes. Banks will make 30-year loans if the […]