In the new tax law that went into effect on January 1, capital income tax rates on certain high-income taxpayers went from 15% to 20%. When you add in the new 3.8% Medicare surtax on net investment income, which includes capital gains, you get an overall 23.8% capital income tax rate for high-income taxpayers. (High-income […]
by Jeff Sovern Earlier in the week I linked to a Times editorial, Bleeding the Borrowers Dry, about the practice of online payday lenders of lending to consumers in states that bar the kinds of high-interest rate loans payday lenders provide. Here is a link to my letter in the Times about the prospects of […]
The Times report is here. An excerpt: The messages, which typically promise gift cards to national chain stores or other prizes, are sent to random phone numbers and usually direct recipients to a Web site where they are asked for personal information like Social Security numbers or credit card numbers, agency officials said. Rarely, if […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. An excerpt: As with the mortgage cases, the investigation focuses on the banks' poor paperwork and their weak tracking of the debts. When they sold delinquent credit card debt to the buyers, often at only a few cents on the dollar, they allegedly failed to provide them with the evidence that […]
Arpan Sura and Robert A. DeRise, both of Arnold & Porter, have written Conceptualizing Concepcion: The Continuing Viability of Arbitration Regulations. Here's the abstract: Section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) provides that arbitration agreements “shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the […]
According to its sponsors — dozens of consumer groups and government agencies — "National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is a coordinated campaign that encourages consumers nationwide to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better-informed decisions. NCPW 2013 will take place March 3 through March 9, 2013." Go to this comprehensive website for […]
Ginger Chouinard of New Mexico has written The 'Other' Credit Report: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You. Here's the abstract: Nearly 90% of financial institutions use ChexSystems or similar account screening reports in their account opening process, yet they are under no duty to disclose this to consumers until an account is denied due […]
Maybe this is slightly off-topic here, but I have an opinion piece up at The Huffington Post reacting to Attorney General Eric Holder's bombshell too-big-to-jail comments yesterday. If you haven't heard, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that some banks may be too big to prosecute, and Congress should consider doing something about it. In case you missed it, […]
by Brian Wolfman Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers are entitled to annual free credit reports from the three mega-credit reporting companies — Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. That's good because it gives consumers a chance to see their reports and try to get them corrected when they are wrong. (And they are often […]
Nancy Welsh of Penn State has written Mandatory Predispute Consumer Arbitration, Structural Bias, and Incentivizing Procedural Safeguards, 42 Southwestern University Law Review 187 (2012). She presented the paper at the AALS annual conference. Here's the abstract: Within the past several decades, there has been an explosion in the creation, institutionalization and use of “alternative” dispute […]