A federal consumer protection enforcement agency announced this month that under a proposed judgment, a group of private student loan companies would have to pay $2.25 million in compensation to student loan borrowers over allegations of improper or illegal collections practices. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, announced the proposed stipulated judgment earlier in January. The judgment, if approved by the court, would resolve nearly eight years of litigation against National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, a collection of entities that purchase securitized packages of private student loans and often filed lawsuits against borrowers who defaulted on those debts. The…

During the campaign, Trump upbraided Biden about the cost of living and claimed he’d fix it. Among the flurry of executive orders the new president signed during his first few days in office was “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.” Are there reasons to address the cost of living? Absolutely. However, the causes have been building for decades, the latest additional pains have been complex, and a general wishful thought that it’s possible to declare a solution is at the root of why nothing actually gets done. The longest-standing issue is that 40 years…

When individuals enter the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), they often believe that numerous programs will be available to help them learn new trades or skills, preparing them to become productive members of society upon release. While some programs exist, chronic staffing shortages and insufficient funding often limit the availability of these opportunities. As a result, many prisoners must take initiative to seek out alternative means for self-improvement during their incarceration. FCI Thomson federal prison in Thomson, IL, made headlines in 2023 (then it was a US Penitentiary) for a controversial program that housed troubled prisoners. The Special Management Unit…

Forget E. F. Hutton; when Warren Buffett talks, people listen. And I don’t feel like that’s simply because he’s the world’s most famous investor, though he is. He’s a person of wisdom. A wisdom that seems to have been applied not only in his investing, but also in his marriage, his parenting, and his own personal finances. So when he recently offered his personal advice on estate planning—on how, when, and why you should talk to your kids about your estate plans—it certainly got my attention. And it offers a framework for all of us, regardless of our net worth.…

House Republicans are floating a proposal to limit eligibility for a key federal student loan forgiveness program intended to benefit public service borrowers. Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF, is a popular program created by bipartisan legislation in 2007 and signed by President George W. Bush. The program offers complete student loan forgiveness for Direct federal student loans after a borrower completes 10 years of employment with a qualifying nonprofit or government employer, while meeting other program criteria (such as repaying their loans under an income-driven repayment plan). PSLF was plagued by loan servicing and oversight problems for years, resulting…

There is a growing literature in the field of financial planning around the area of financial psychology. What academics and practitioners are recognizing, more and more, is that money is not just about the exterior life, such as financial ratios and personal balance sheet, but also about an interior life, such as a money personality. Your money personality is important for you to know because it influences how you think and feel about money, which impacts your financial health and even the quality of your relationships. Money Worlds One of the best ways of understanding your interior life around money…

On January 23, 2025, in the Texas Top Cop Shop case, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the application of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to terminate the nationwide preliminary injunction (also known as universal injunctive relief) that had temporarily stopped FINCEN from enforcing its Beneficial Ownership Interest (BOI) reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) that was passed by Congress in 2021. This is purely a procedural ruling that goes to whether a U.S. District Court may enter an 11th-hour order stopping the enforcement of an Act of Congress. The ruling does not go to the underlying merits…

A Record Number of Consumers Are Making Minimum Credit Card Payments as Delinquencies Also Rise Consumer stress has intensified, with an escalating share of credit card holders making only minimum payments on their bills, according to a Philadelphia Federal Reserve report. In fact, the share of active holders just making baseline payments on their cards jumped to a 12-year high, data through the third quarter of 2024 shows. Along with the trend in minimum payments came a move higher in delinquency rates. The share of balances more than 30 days past due rose to 3.52%, an increase from 3.21%, for…

Increasingly, many economists and other market watchers have presumed that the Federal Reserve would reach a rare achievement of a so-called soft landing for the economy. The term means seeing a reduction in inflation with no significant increase in unemployment and continued economic growth in the form of increasing GDP. However, incoming economic data and the Fed’s projections make this look increasingly unlikely. That’s because the economy — 69% of GDP — is consumer spending and the majority faces trouble. The cost of living — the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers, all items — has continued to outpace…

In 2017, during the initial days of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, a government-wide hiring freeze was implemented, with exemptions granted only to “essential areas.” Notably absent from this exemption list was the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a decision that led to the permanent loss of many positions. By 2019, Eric Young, then-president of the Council of Prison Locals C-33 under the American Federation of Government Employees, declared staffing at the BOP to be in a dire state, calling it the “lowest our staffing has ever been.” The positions lost in that freeze were never recovered, and now, with Trump’s…