Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Sarah Byrnes of Americans for Fairness in Lending is an occasional guest contributor to Caveat Emptor.
Consumers Union recently announced a new “Dangers of Debt” cartoon contest for young people ages 18 – 25. The winning cartoonist will receive $1,000 in cash!
Not artistically inclined? Check the CU website after November 6th to vote on the winning [...]

U.S. bank failures almost certain to rise in next year | CNN

“Dow suffers worst weekly performance since the week after 9/11 attacks, as investors remain fearful about the economy.” Stocks slump despite bank rescue | CNN Money

Five car ailments you shouldn’t ignore | CNN

With all the stuff about Palin’s inability to come up with any Supreme Court cases that she disagrees with other than Roe v. Wade (though she agreed with its central premise that a right to privacy exists in the Constitution), I started thinking about a few that I don’t agree with or am at least [...]

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
I appear to be on a Walt Disney kick.
As with Ursula in The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio presents us with a situation in which a deal is made and then the merchant in the deal decides [...]

This has “desperation” written all over it. Yellow Pages is Paying Bloggers to Say Nice Things About Them | The Deets

Following up his excellent mission to return an unrequested phone book to Verizon, Ed Kohler published a Yellow Pages slideshow called “Dealing With the Opt-Out Movement” (PDF). In the slideshow, the Yellow Pages catalogs their “wins” in preventing states from allowing consumers to opt out of receiving the phone book.
Why do phone book companies hate [...]

Kia Franklin over at TortDeform found this great clip of Mark Wahlstrom and Jan Schlichtmann discussing “Tort Reform” and debunking a number of the myths of tort reform. It includes a challenge from Mark Wahlstrom to his fellow conservatives to stop and look at what is really going on in tort reform and what [...]

700 billion is a lot of money. How do you as consumers get your head around that figure? Well a good start might be with a basic definition of money itself. Here is a good start:

A companion pice to Nick’s post of earlier today.  Earlier this summer the Boston Globe printed a response to an editorial which laid the blame of the current mortgage crisis at the feet of the CRA.  Perhaps the best part of the response is the comment that no statistics were provided.
I think that’s what we need (in addition [...]

The following is a great discussion which took place on Thursday 9/25.  For a great instruction on credit reporting and consumers listen here.  The interview begins at 59:43 of the 1:19 broadcast segment.  
If you are concerned about your credit rating and/or report this is a must listen.

Millionaire Claims Ghosts Caused Him to Flee His Mortgage, I Mean Mansion | Lowering the Bar

Washington Mutual is selling many assets to JP Morgan and opening its doors to the Feds, who will take over what is left of the formerly-huge bank.
WaMu’s collapse is the biggest bank failure in history.

Every Senator and Representative should talk this tough.  Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank - you listening?

Earlier this year, former employees of MBNA and Bank of America contacted AFFIL looking for a way to speak out about disturbing sales practices they were trained to use as employees. Their stories confirm what we’ve long suspected: that credit card companies extend credit to those who can’t afford it, and engage in [...]

Bankruptcy, Takeovers, and Bailouts - Oh My! | Queercents

The StarTribune has a commentary on the current turmoil in the financial markets. While the latter half of the commentary turns into an endorsement of Obama,* the first part identifies the cause clearly and concisely: “The banking and investment industries have been inadequately regulated, and consumer protections were diminished.”
All the fancy highly sophisticated financial products [...]