Back to School Loans

While many were kicking back during the last unofficial week of the summer, one of the most interesting bits of news that fell below the radar was the resignation announcement from Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It may seem a little inside baseball, but as reported in the New York Times, Frotman said in his resignation letter that "millions of borrowers had been harmed" by ‘sweeping changes’ at the bureau under Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s budget director, who became the bureau’s acting director in November.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 3, 2018student loans, student loan, college debt, Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, CFPB, NAFTA, Trump

The Upside and Downside of Rising House Prices

A couple of months ago, I noted that the housing market had a problem: there were too few homes for sale. Persistently low inventory means that there are a lot of frustrated would-be buyers out there, spending weekends at open houses. It also has led to home prices continuing to rise at a more than six percent clip from a year ago.

Congress Throws Consumers Under the Bus

Last week, House lawmakers passed a bill that threw consumers under the bus. The Financial Choice Act would gut the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010 by giving the president the power to fire the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at any time for any -- or no -- reason. It would also provide Congress with sweeping power over the CFPB's budget, which means that lawmakers could defund the agency entirely. That’s a shame, because in the six years since the CFPB was established, it has provided nearly $12 billion in relief for more than 29 million consumers. The CFPB was created out of Dodd Frank in order to create a single point of accountability for enforcing federal consumer financial laws and protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. The agency’s main goals are to:

BlogMark TalercioJune 12, 2017CFA, CFP, CFPB, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CPS-PFS, DOL Fiduciary, Fiduciary, FPA, NAPFA

The Obama Economic Legacy

As President Obama leaves office, it’s time to reflect on how the economy fared during his tenure. Because of the size and complexity of the U.S. economy, I have generally believed that presidents take too much credit or blame for what occurs on their watch. In many cases, bad luck or good fortune can play a larger role in a particular president’s economic performance than actual policy.