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Press:
TV doomsday: Will the USA be ready?
Does Feb. 17, 2009, mean anything to you? If you’re among the millions of American households that get over-the-air TV, it’s the day your set will stop working unless you protect yourself. Here’s why. TV… -
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Insurance for the next Big One
There is impeccable logic to the argument that taxpayers should not be made to pay for the risks incurred by people who choose to live along a hurricane-prone coast or atop a major geological fault.… -
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Mortgage brokers’ sleight of hand
*The following op-ed, Mortgage brokers’ sleight of hand, written by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, was published in the Boston Globe on October 2, 2007. In the past five years, if you called a… -
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Common sense and credit cards
After years of looking the other way, Congress seems finally poised to rein in the predatory practices that have become all too common in the credit card business. Several bills now pending would outlaw unfair… -
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Cutting them a break on carried interest
Democrats like to boast that they are the party that worries about the middle class while Republicans lavish tax goodies on the rich. So a juicy tax break enjoyed by a select group of the… -
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Why veto children’s health care funding?
The single most compelling reason to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is also the simplest: It’s the right thing to do. But the moral argument doesn’t seem to hold much sway with… -
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Fix rates to save loans
There have been many proposals to deal with the problems in the mortgage market. But the best place to begin is by looking at the poor lending standards and weak consumer protections at the root… -
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Unsafe products overwhelm safety agency
Our view on consumer protection: Unsafe products overwhelm emaciated safety agency. Stripped of staff and authority, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) struggles to keep up. In the spring of 2005, a baby was strangled by… -
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Not wise to bail out reckless investors
Last summer, the bill started to come due on our debt-fueled economy. We should have let it - and let reckless speculators, subprime lenders and banks finally get what they had coming. But instead, the… -
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Watered-down mortgage reform
What a difference a day makes. Just yesterday, this page praised the House Financial Services Committee for producing an exemplary bill, the Mortgage Reform and Antipredatory Lending Act of 2007, and urged its members to… -
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Major flaws in U.S. banking system
{To submit your ideas go to www.regulations.gov. Select “Department of the Treasury-All” from the agency drop-down menu, then click “Submit.” In the “Docket ID” column, select “TREAS-DO-2007-0018.” Visit the site.] Fed up… -
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Congress and the mortgage mess
The House will vote today on much needed legislation to curtail abusive mortgage lending. Last minute lobbying to weaken the bill is coming from all corners: from brokers who hawked the junk loans, lenders who… -
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Give toy safety more clout
Note: Doug Gansler is Maryland’s attorney general. David Kosmos is program associate for Maryland PIRG. Today is “Black Friday” - the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. As parents and other caregivers get ready… -
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Targeting yield-spread-premium abuse
When a mortgage broker steers a borrower toward a high-rate loan for which the broker collects a rebate from the lender, that payment is called a yield spread premium. When the broker does so without… -
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Wireless phone monopoly a bad deal
Anyone who travels around Vermont knows the inadequacy of our cell phone coverage. Some towns have virtually no reception. Others have, at best, spotty coverage. At a time when strong cell phone service is essential… -
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Spreading the [housing] misery
The nation’s foreclosure crisis is metastasizing, and communities are in harm’s way as property values and tax bases decline and crime increases. In the third quarter, there were 635,000 foreclosure filings, a 30 percent increase… -
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The Fed’s Thaw
The Federal Reserve Board’s clout isn’t what it was during Alan Greenspan’s glory days. Back then, the Fed looked and acted all-powerful (even though it wasn’t). Now it’s visibly failing to unfreeze key debt markets… -
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Complex pricing of credit cards
Pop quiz: what’s the interest rate on the credit cards you’re carrying? How about the default rate? Do you know what constitutes an event of default? What will trigger a penalty fee or surcharge? How… -
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Throwing the book at them
It turns out the library can do more than just shush you. If you accumulate enough unpaid late fees, some New York libraries are ready to hit you where it really hurts: your credit score.… -
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Rein in credit card debt
We believe: Americans need to keep a close eye on how much they spend with their credit cards. If there was one overarching theme in 2007, it was debt. Americans are swimming in it,… -
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No insurance, poor health
The case for providing health coverage for all Americans got even more compelling in the past week when two new studies presented the most comprehensive evidence yet that the lack of health insurance is seriously… -
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A questionable barrier to the polls
In many ways, yesterday’s arguments before the Supreme Court revolved around fear of the unknown. Those challenging an Indiana law requiring voters to present photo identification at polling places fear that the requirement will place… -
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The real price of fakes
As the economy weakens, consumers hunt for bargains. Sometimes, however, a bargain can be a literal steal, and a dangerous one at that. The World Customs Organization estimates that 7 percent of goods traded… -
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King’s words more relevant than ever
Over the past couple of weeks, the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have proved to be as powerful today as they have ever been. One passage from his “I Have a Dream”… -
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Time for attention to consumer issues
Congress is back in session and lawmakers have a lot on their plate right now. Clearly, an economic stimulus package tops the list. But a number of important consumer issues that made headlines in 2007…
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