Showing archive for: “CFPB”
Time to Get Rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
In my Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum published yesterday, I call for elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), on constitutional and economic policy grounds. As I explain: The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, is living up to its billing as one of ... Time to Get Rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Time to Apply Office of Management and Budget Regulatory Review to Independent Agencies
Last June, in Michigan v. EPA, the Supreme Court commendably recognized cost-benefit analysis as critical to any reasoned evaluation of regulatory proposals by federal agencies. (For more on the merits and limitations of this holding, see my June 29 blog.) The White House (Office of Management and Budget) office that evaluates proposed federal regulations, the ... Time to Apply Office of Management and Budget Regulatory Review to Independent Agencies
What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
In yesterday’s hearings on the disastrous launch of the federal health insurance exchanges, contractors insisted that part of the problem was a last-minute specification from the government: the feds didn’t want people to be able to “window shop” for health insurance until they had created a profile and entered all sorts of personal information. That’s ... What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
Ginsburg & Wright on Behavioral Law and Economics: Its Origins, Fatal Flaws, and Implications for Liberty
My paper with Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg (D.C. Circuit; NYU Law), Behavioral Law & Economics: Its Origins, Fatal Flaws, and Implications for Liberty, is posted to SSRN and now published in the Northwestern Law Review. Here is the abstract: Behavioral economics combines economics and psychology to produce a body of evidence that individual choice behavior ... Ginsburg & Wright on Behavioral Law and Economics: Its Origins, Fatal Flaws, and Implications for Liberty
Cass Sunstein Returns to Harvard
From the WSJ: White House regulatory chief Cass Sunstein is leaving his post this month to return to Harvard Law School, officials said Friday. Mr. Sunstein has long been an advocate of behavorial economics in setting policy, the notion that people will respond to incentives, and has argued for restraint in government regulations. As such, he was ... Cass Sunstein Returns to Harvard
Macey Throws Some Cold Water on the CFPB’s New Mortgage Disclosures
In the WSJ, Professor Macey takes measure of the CFPB’s new mortgage disclosures and finds them lacking: The CFPB is proposing to revise the old forms into a new Loan Estimate Form and Closing Disclosure Form. The old loan form had been five pages; according to the agency website, the new one is three. The ... Macey Throws Some Cold Water on the CFPB’s New Mortgage Disclosures
New Article Forthcoming in Yale Law Journal: The Antitrust/ Consumer Protection Paradox: Two Policies At War With One Another
Yale Law Journal has published my article on “The Antitrust/ Consumer Protection Paradox: Two Policies At War With One Another.” The hat tip to Robert Bork’s classic “Antitrust Paradox” in the title will be apparent to many readers. The primary purpose of the article is to identify an emerging and serious conflict between antitrust and ... New Article Forthcoming in Yale Law Journal: The Antitrust/ Consumer Protection Paradox: Two Policies At War With One Another
A new approach to consumer regulation: firm ownership
We have heard a lot about how business exploits consumer biases and therefore we need more regulation and disclosure. By the time the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets up to speed, maybe the regulators will realize their dream of consumers behaving as they should. In the meantime, Ryan Bubb and Alex Kaufman have another approach ... A new approach to consumer regulation: firm ownership
My Reflections on The Senate CFPB Hearing
[Cross-posted at PYMNTS.COM] Richard Cordray’s nomination hearing provided an opportunity to learn something new about the substantive policies of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Unfortunately, that opportunity came and went without answering many of the key questions that remain concerning the impact of the CFPB’s enforcement and regulatory agenda on the availability of consumer ... My Reflections on The Senate CFPB Hearing
Natural Disasters and Payday Lending
There has been plenty of Hurricane Irene blogging, and some posts linking natural disasters to various aspects of law and policy (see, e.g. my colleague Ilya Somin discussing property rights and falling trees). Often, post-natural disaster economic discussion at TOTM turns to the perverse consequences of price gouging laws. This time around, the damage from ... Natural Disasters and Payday Lending
Cooper and Kovacic on Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Agencies
There is an embarrassing blind spot in the behavioral law and economics literature with respect to implementation of policy whether via legislation or administrative agency. James Cooper and William Kovacic — both currently at the Federal Trade Commission as Attorney Advisor Commissioner, respectively — aim to fill this gap with a recent working paper entitled ... Cooper and Kovacic on Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Agencies
