Starting in 1995 and throughout the subprime boom during the next decade, Congress failed to take action to curb predatory mortgage lending. Many states and cities filled the void by passing anti-predatory lending laws of their own. Lenders, worried about potential liability, quickly organized a...

This essay attempts to catalog and describe the various dimensions to regulating home mortgages. We do not discuss specific lending practices, loan terms, or legal prohibitions, but rather the major issues that policy-makers should consider when framing a system to protect consumers who take out...

People like to know and understand the total cost of credit products they are considering. They also like to know and understand products' terms and features. Given these preferences, issuers of credit should market products with transparent features and simple pricing. That is not the case. In...

On March 7, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, issued a Request for Information eliciting public comment on its rulemaking processes. This response expresses concern that under its new leadership, the Bureau is retreating from its commitment to...

Soon after the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President, while Republicans controlled Congress, opponents of the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened a campaign against the Bureau. Their target was less the substance of federal consumer financial laws than the structure...

After existing regulatory systems failed to prevent the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a sweeping reform designed to alleviate the crisis and prevent its recurrence. Out of this Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...

Fictitious scare statistics have featured prominently in recent debates over consumer credit policy. The latest example is David Evans and Joshua Wright's statistical claims about the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act on the cost and availability of consumer credit and...