News

2021

February

02

• How to prioritize debt payments in the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout are far from over, so you’ll want to be strategic when dealing with pandemic-related and other debt.

• How rich hospitals profit off of car accidents. Hospitals use century-old lien laws to bypass insurers and charge patients, especially poorer ones, the full amount.

01

• What the Republican counteroffer to Biden’s stimulus plan means. Ten Republicans on Sunday sketched out a $600 billion counteroffer to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. While the GOP proposal contains money for coronavirus testing and vaccination as well as for small businesses and

• Here are the issues Biden’s consumer bureau may tackle. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to become a more aggressive consumer watchdog under the Biden administration. Biden nominated Rohit Chopra, a former student loan official at the Obama-era agency, to head the CFPB.

• What resources can help my family while I’m unemployed?. Each state unemployment program determines which workers are eligible for benefits. Generally, you cannot collect unemployment if you quit your job. The compensation is intended to help people who have lost employment through no fault

• Will Dems be able to include $15 minimum wage in new relief bill?. The effort to include a $15 minimum wage in the new relief bill poses a challenge for Democrats. The measure will test their willingness and ability to use procedural maneuvers to shepherd big policy goals past

January

29

• HUD nominee to push for rental assistance and affordable housing. If confirmed as secretary of housing and urban development, Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) will confront the immediate challenge of keeping millions of Americans from losing their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic, while also ending

28

• CFPB emerges from Trump storm battered but intact. The federal government is filled with anonymous civil servants who spent the past four years keeping their heads down and doing their jobs while trying to prevent Donald Trump’s appointees from subverting their

• Zillow to list housing discrimination protections. Zillow announced an update to its mobile app that aids in the fight against rental discrimination. Rentals listed on Zillow will now show whether or not they lie in a jurisdiction with local laws protecting

27

• Democrats turn to quick action on Biden covid relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that the Senate could vote as soon as next week on a budget bill setting the stage for party-line passage of President Biden’s $1.9

• Muzzled under Trump, Consumer Bureau to renew tough industry oversight. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog created after the 2008 financial meltdown and largely muzzled in the Trump era, is poised to start barking again. The agency will focus first on enforcing legal protections for

26

• What happens when you click "agree"?. The same legalese that can ban Donald Trump from Twitter can bar users from joining class-action lawsuits. It’s time to fix the fine print.

• Seniors face shrinking nest eggs during pandemic. Senior citizens are increasingly finding themselves with new responsibilities and a lot of hard choices because of the coronavirus pandemic. Those who have savings have to decide if they should dip into their accounts early,

22

• The tech that will invade our lives in 2021. Before the coronavirus transformed our lives, the lists of tech to watch each year were often dominated by whiz-bang gizmos like smart speakers and curved televisions. But the pandemic has pushed us to embrace useful

• Complaints about movers soar during pandemic. Mover-related hassles, including some movers holding people's belongings hostage unless they receive more money, aren't new. I first wrote about the problem in 2007. But the danger to consumers has grown more pronounced during

21

• New debt collection rule is a mixed bag for consumer rights. Bad news: New debt collection rule permits unlimited electronic access to consumers. Good news: It may eliminate "debt parking" by forcing debt collectors to reach consumers before posting debts on their credit reports.

• Black Americans suffered the most under Trump-era CFPB, study finds. The paper, from two Boston College researchers, tracked consumer complaints, and the follow-ups recorded by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their findings show that in January 2017 — even before President Trump  made any changes

• Consumer bureau director resigns at Biden's request. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger resigned at the request of the newly sworn-in President Biden, clearing the way for his nominee to lead the powerful regulatory agency. Kraninger’s resignation gives

20

• Five ways to protect yourself from housing scams. Housing scams are everywhere. Three common scams are lender impersonation scams, foreclosure relief scams and rental scams. Here are five ways you can protect yourself from them.

• Yellen outlines economic priorities; Republicans draw battle lines. Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary nominee, said at her confirmation hearing that the U.S. economy needed more help to get through the pandemic.