Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

As John noted, the Court unsurprisingly granted cert. in Noel Canning.  The interesting facet is that the Court added a third question: “Whether the President’s recess-appointment power may be exercised when the Senate is convening every three days in pro forma sessions.”  One suspects that the reason for this was that it provides the Court […]

I will be giving an evening talk to the New Jersey Federalist Society Lawyers Division tomorrow evening (Thursday) at 6pm at the Morris Museum in Morristown.  My topic is “Separation of Powers and Accountability at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”  Among other topics I plan to address the Supreme Court’s grant of cert in the Noel Canning […]

As previously noted, last week was the Federalist Society’s inaugural Executive Branch Review Conference.  The Federalist Society has posted video of all the programs on its website here.  I was on the Dodd-Frank panel, which had the unfortunate fate of being scheduled at the same time that Jonathan was speaking on the Obamacare panel, which […]

I purchased a Dell laptop a few years ago and it has been serviceable.  Except for one thing–the horrible integrated webcam.  The first was defective and had to be replaced.  Now my computer is telling me that it doesn’t detect any webcam.  As far as I can tell, the only thing worse than a Dell […]

Next week the Federalist Society is presenting an “Executive  Branch Review Conference” which it confidently bills as the “First Annual.”  Jonathan and I are on the program in addition to multiple others.  CLE credit is available.  Information is available here.

Interesting commentary in The Atlantic Monthly on the rising cost and decreasing quality of higher education: HIGHER education has long been growing more rational. Yet there is a widespread feeling of discontent with the present ideal of academic culture which sometimes degenerates into down- right pessimism. It must be conceded that education costs too much […]

According to Bloomberg the Chippewa-Cree tribe in Montana has refused to comply with a CID from the CFPB based on the illegality of the non-recess appointment of Richard Cordray as Bureau director: Under Dodd-Frank, the bulk of the bureau’s authority to supervise banks with assets above $10 billion, a group of about 110 that includesJPMorgan Chase […]

My review of Vern McKinley’s book Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts has been posted at the Law & Liberty blog.

I don’t want to make America a better place to live and I hate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Sincerely, Todd PS: Does this mean you won’t audit me?

My old friend Matt Harrington now runs a Center for the Study of Common Law at the University of Montreal Law School and he blessed me with an invitation to speak a program last week on common law as a regulatory system and the interaction of common law with regulation.  My job was to add […]

The Senate held a hearing today at which Richard Cordray testified in his supposed capacity as “Director” of the CFPB.  Jeb Hensarling, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, on the other hand has refused to invite Cordray to testify in light of the DC Circuit’s Noel Canning decision invalidating the NLRB recess appointments: President Obama installed Cordray […]

Recent Bloomberg story on the CFPB’s database for credit card complaints: When U.S. officials began collecting consumer complaints about credit cards, one goal was to identify patterns that could help them write rules protecting families with low and moderate incomes. Nearly two years later, it’s the well-to-do neighborhoods of Florida and New York that are supplying the […]

Tonight at 7:15 at the GMU Arlington Campus I will be giving a GMU Vision Series Lectures on “The Not-So-Good-Old-Days of Consumer Credit: How to Think About Consumer Credit and Its Regulation.”  Thank you to Provost Peter Stearns for the invitation and the honor of providing this lecture.  The lecture will be in the new […]

House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling has sent a letter to Ben Bernanke asking for an explanation for the legal basis for the Fed’s funding of CFPB.  The argument is straightforward in light of Noel Canning: “ASs you know, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act… authorizes the Board to transfer funds to […]

Michael McCann of UNH Law School (and a regular on legal issues for SI) has snagged an interview with Lance Armstrong. Update:  I should’ve added that I think that Michael has a piece in the print version of SI and this is an online accompaniment to the print story.  He also has an online interview […]