CreditSlips

In a somewhat surprising move, the Supreme Court has granted cert. to consider if Puerto Rico's Recovery Act is preempted by section 903 of the Code. I have previously argued it is not, but the First Circuit disagreed. We will now see who wins.

It's appropriations season and efforts to harass the CFPB seem to be going into overdrive. The latest scheme:  hit the CFPB with financial reporting requirements unparalleled for any government agency.  This little nugget of petty harassment is found in section 504 of the House Financial Services Appropriations bill being considered for inclusion in the final budget package. 

Steve Davidoff Solomon has a Dealbook column on the CFPB's attempts to regulate auto lending that unfortunately gives the wrong impression about what the agency is up to, but which does tee up a really interesting question about the agency's politics.

The New York Times recently ran a very sad, if extreme and unrepresentative, story of student loan debt. There's lots one can say about the article, but two points really jumped out at me. 

Forgiving student loan debt for low-income Americans could reduce the racial wealth gap among those households by as much as 50%, according to a new report from Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy.