Tag: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Closing Costs for Buying a Home Have Risen Along With Rates

A pricey housing market and higher interest rates have made it harder to afford a house, but related expenses known as closing costs also add to the home-buying challenge. Typical loan closing costs when completing a home purchase — for items like loan origination fees, discount points, appraisal and credit report fees, and lender title […]

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Looking for a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate? Good Luck.

Credit card debt is rising, and shopping for a card with a lower interest rate can help you save money. But the challenge is finding one. Smaller banks and credit unions typically charge significantly lower interest rates on credit cards than the largest banks do — even among customers with top-notch credit, the Consumer Financial […]

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He Grew Up in the Shadow of the ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ Then He Got Into Debt Settlement.

In the early 1980s, 19-year-old Jordan Belfort — who would go on to become known as the Wolf of Wall Street, a title he bestowed on himself in a tell-all memoir — had a fortuitous encounter on Jones Beach, on Long Island, with another teenager selling ice cream named Stephen Drescher. The two became friends. […]

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What the Supreme Court Fishery Case Could Mean for Federal Agencies’ Power

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a set of cases that could pave the way for its conservative supermajority to undercut how American society imposes rules on businesses, advancing a key goal of the conservative legal movement. Such a ruling would make it easier to challenge regulations across a gamut of issues, like […]

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Banks Should Have Better Customer Relations When Closing an Account

For most of the last year, my inbox has been overflowing with tales from people like these: Every person — more than 1,000 wrote to me and my colleague Tara Siegel Bernard — volunteered a story of losing banking and credit-card accounts and included contact information. It’s not the sort of thing most people normally […]

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The Stay-or-Pay Clause That Demands You Pay to Quit Your Job

Mandating a financial penalty if a contract is broken, as in Vidal’s case, has a long history in contract law, but it is relatively new in employment contracts. In the early 1970s, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit noted that companies providing “specialized training” to their employees could require reimbursement “if the […]

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Hey, Democrats—Here’s a Winning 2024 Message on a Silver Platter

Let’s begin with the states; they are raring to go. Texas, for example, seems to regard Supreme Court decisions as mild suggestions. In 2021, its SB 8 abortion bill didn’t merely test the boundaries of Roe v. Wade but successfully negated it, even though the landmark 1973 ruling was affirmed by the Court as recently […]

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The Surprising Argument That Could Save America’s Consumer Watchdog Agency

“No, because I think that Congress itself has specified that the director is limited to the amount that’s reasonably necessary to carry out federal consumer financial law,” Prelogar explained. “But, if the president determined it was reasonably necessary to take a trillion dollars, that would satisfy your concern and, on the appropriations clause itself, has […]

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Supreme Court Skeptical in That Could Hobble Consumer Watchdog

A majority of the justices at a Supreme Court argument on Tuesday seemed ready to reject a challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency set up during the Obama administration to crack down on abuses by banks and other financial services providers. The justices appeared unpersuaded by the argument against […]

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The Next Supreme Court Term: Guns, Free Speech and More

When the Supreme Court returns to the bench on Monday, it will face a docket filled with unfinished business. The justices will revisit issues like gun rights, government power, race and free speech even as they are shadowed by intense scrutiny of their conduct off the bench. In the coming months, moreover, the court will […]

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