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A blog by Gary Becker and Richard Posner
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The Becker-Posner Blog
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The Treasury Department in its "white paper" of June 17 recommended the creation of a "Consumer Financial Protection Agency," and later followed up with a detailed legislative proposal for a "Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009." The proposal is pending in Congress.Although the Commission's remit would not be limited to mortgages, risky mortgage lending is the Act's principal target. ...
08-31
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The Becker-Posner Blog
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No doubt many consumers made mistakes in their credit decisions during the past few years, perhaps especially in the mortgages they chose. It is equally clear that many lenders wish they had never given the mortgages they gave since they lost their shirts by doing so. Does any of this mean that a commission to protect consumers would be a welcome piece of legislation? I am first of all dubious tha...
08-31
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The Becker-Posner Blog
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The cash-for-clunkers program of the federal government began in late July, and will end this evening. It provides a credit of from $3500-$4500 for anyone who trades in an older car to buy a new fuel-efficient car. When measured by its popularity, this has been a highly successful program, for about 500,000 applications have been submitted under the program during these few weeks. The strong deman...
08-25
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The Becker-Posner Blog
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I agree with Becker that it's a silly program.Like the bailout of the auto companies, the program had dual environmental and economic-recovery goals. The environmental goal, to reduce carbon emissions, was trivial; the aggregate improvement in gas mileage from the program is certain to be minuscule. The contribution to economic recovery was probably very small as well--possibly negligible. The pro...
08-25
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The Becker-Posner Blog
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The focus of the Administration's health-care plan, and of its campaign to enlist public support for the plan, is dissatisfaction with health insurance. To see the problem--or whether there is a problem--compare health insurance to fire insurance. Almost everyone has fire insurance (even if he doesn't want it, invariably it is required by the mortgagee, if there is one). The reason is that a fire ...
08-18
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