by Paul Alan Levy The Times reports that the NAACP filed an amicus brief supporting the soft-drink industry in its opposition to the New York City rules barring super-sized sugary drinks. It is surely not a coincidence that the NAACP gets donations from Coke, as does its New York State Conference, which filed the brief). […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. I have seen reports that Cordray might seek the Ohio governorship, even that he might leave the CFPB directorship before his recess appointment expires at the end of this year to that end, but perhaps this indicates that he will stay at the Bureau. I wonder if this is a pro […]
That's the topic of this Market Watch article by Jan Wieczner. Here's an excerpt: Car insurance companies reward good behavior: Drivers with records free of 15-car pileups and tickets for doing 90 in a 55 pay cheaper premiums. Health insurers, on the other hand, offer people little incentive to stay out of harm’s (and doctor’s) […]
Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin has just written this 34-page article on the history, structure, powers, and politics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here is Levitin's introduction: In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Congress undertook a major overhaul of financial regulation, culminating in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection […]
That's the name of this new article on the Federal Arbitration Act by Jarrod Wong of the McGeorge School of Law. Here's the abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisprudence interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is incoherent insofar as it relies on the concept of the parties’ “intent.” on the matter. To illustrate this distorting […]
That's the view of N.Y. Times columnist Eduardo Porter. Porter would raise them progressively, with smaller percentage increases on the working and middle classes. In this regard, remember that, despite contrary political rhetoric, income taxes are not high. They are at historical lows.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits debt collectors from attempting to collect debts — valid or not — in various unfair, deceptive, and ornery ways. The FTC's website explains in detail here. And Chris Morran, over at The Consumerist helpfully has boiled it down to the "23 things debt collectors are not allowed to […]
Tom Baker of Penn and Peter Siegelman of Connecticut have written Protecting Consumers from Add-On Insurance Products: New Lessons for Insurance Regulation from Behavioral Economics. Here's the abstract: Persistently high profits on “insurance” for small value losses sold as an add-on to other products or services (such as extended warranties sold with consumer electronics, loss […]
That's the name of this article by Ben Trachtenberg of the University of Missouri Law School. Here is the abstract: Law schools have misled prospective students for years about the value of legal education. In some cases, law school officials have engaged in outright deceit, knowingly spreading false information about their schools. More commonly, they […]
Most airline passengers today are likely to encounter one of two screening machines at the security checkpoints of major U.S. airports — the kind that shows a revealing image of the passenger's full body (the so-called "naked" scanners) or the kind that shows only a generic body outline or simply a box that says "OK." […]