Subprime mortgage lending is controversial. Its critics see excessive prices, unfair terms and "predatory" practices. Proponents see a much narrower set of problems. Legislative and regulatory solutions to perceive problems are being implemented piecemeal across states and even local...

On December 23, 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced that the United States Department of Agriculture had diagnosed the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease.†This study uses supermarket sales data to analyze the...

The Truth in Savings Act mandates that financial institutions disclose certain information about the terms of consumer deposit accounts in specific forms and at specific times. Although many depository institutions provided disclosures of account terms before the act was passed in 1991, most did...

The cost of government regulation has become a political issue in recent years, and the cost is no less controversial for banks than for other types of businesses. The controversy has prompted several studies of regulatory costs in banking. This paper evaluates the evidence from those studies,...

Subprime mortgage lending is controversial. Its critics see excessive prices, unfair terms and "predatory" practices. Proponents see a much narrower set of problems. Legislative and regulatory solutions to perceive problems are being implemented piecemeal across states and even local...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2011 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and places the 2011 activity in historical context....

Consumer Credit and the American Economy examines the economics, behavioral science, sociology, history, institutions, law, and regulation of consumer credit in the United States. After discussing the origins and various kinds of consumer credit available in today's marketplace, this book...

A variety of consumer credit products have particular notoriety because of their high prices. The products include some small personal loans, pawnbroker loans, payday loans, automobile title loans, and refund anticipation loans. Critics of these credit products see little or no benefit to using...