The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued this report entitled "Student Loan Affordability–Analysis of Public Input on Impact and Solutions." The report's executive summary appears after the jump. The agency also issued this companion fact sheet. The fact sheet includes what it calls "Student Loan Debt by the Numbers": • $1.1 trillion: Approximate amount of […]
by Paul Alan Levy You can’t live in the DC area and not encounter the pervasive advertising for Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, from mailed coupons and display advertising in the Washington Post that promise unbelievably low prices, to classic rock broadcast from the “Hadeed.com Studios” and advertising during Washington Capitals games. But regular users of pages […]
The main point of this Washington Post column is to describe the looming danger facing retirees with insufficient savings, and to suggest one possible answer (a supplement to Social Security). But I found the column most interesting for its discussion of savings rates among even Americans living above the median income (spoiler alert: they're alarmingly […]
On June 6, the FTC and the CFPB will co-host a joint roundtable event, "Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection," to examine the flow of consumer data throughout the debt collection process. The event, held at the FTC, will bring together consumer advocates, credit issuers, collection industry members, state and federal regulators, […]
by Deepak Gupta The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 — legislation that would ban mandatory pre-dispute binding arbitration in consumer and employment contracts — was introduced today in both houses of Congress by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). New to this version of the bill–an exclusion for antitrust disputes. The House […]
The Blog of the Legal Times reports that The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today filed suit against two lawyers and two debt relief companies, alleging they charged thousands of consumers illegal advance fees and left some worse off financially. One of the lawyers, Michael Levitis, also faces face mail and wire fraud charges brought by […]
That's the name of this short essay by law professor Linda Mullenix on the Supreme Court's recent class-actions decisions in the Amgen, Comcast, and Standard Fire decisions. Here is the abstract: The article surveys the Court’s liberal and conservative divide on class certification issues, giving some support to both the plaintiff and defense sides of […]
by Brian Wolfman Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration issued this proposed order regarding tanning beds. The FDA is proposing to reclassify these ultra violet devices to require more warnings — including that minors not use them at all — because they are a cancer hazard. The proposal would also require the products to meet […]
That's the name of this article by Si Lazarus and Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center. "Broken circuit" is Lazarus and Kendall's characterization of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They point to "[a] new breed of activism on the .. the D.C. Circuit — for environmental cases second in importance […]
Here. The report is by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. It estimates the loans cost more than 14,000 jobs.