Consumer Law

Consumer Law & Policy Roundup

By Deepak Gupta

by Deepak Gupta

Here's a small slice of what happened this busy week in the world of consumer law and policy:

• The foreclosure scandal continues to get a lot of ink. In today's Washington Post, Eugene Robinson has a column argyuing, along the lines of Alan White's previous post,  that "Lawyers got it right on the foreclosure mess."  On his blog, Ezra Klein explored the case for and against a foreclosure moratorium, interviewing leading advocates on both sides.
• Senator Dodd gave a major speech on CFPB at NYU Law School on Tuesday in which he defended the agency and the decision to place it in the Fed. Most of the coverage of Dodd's speech has focused on his discussion of the appointment of the agency's first director: He expressed support for Elizabeth Warren but repeated concerns about a Senate confirmation fight. Watch a video of the speech here.
• Also on Tuesday, President Obama announced 12 appointments to the new President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, a body created by the Dodd-Frank Act. At the White House blog, Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr discussed the Council's role in improving consumer financial education.
• Consumers Union announced its agenda for the CFPB.
• Elizabeth Warren, who is seemingly everywhere at once, found time to sit down for a video chat at the White House, answering questions about the CFPB submitted by members of the public:

• Yeserday, state insurance regulators unanimously recommended major new health insurance rules, including medical-loss ratio rules. The recommendations now land on Kathleen Sebelius's desk.
• The EEOC held a hearing yesterday on the discriminatory impact of credit checks of prospective employees, an issue that's gotten a lot of attention lately, reports Nathan Koppell at the Wall Street Journal. The FTC offered testimony at the hearing on employers' obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on October 22, 2010 (boomark / email).