Consumer Fin Consumer Protect

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

Consumer financial products play a central role in the financial lives of most people in the United States and in the nation’s financial well-being. Consumers rely on these products to make, and often to finance, the purchases that help drive economic growth and help households build wealth. For financially fragile households, credit plays an especially important, and sometimes problematic role in their daily lives. Not surprisingly, consumer finance poses important policy questions regarding the role government should play in regulating the offering of these products by financial institutions and in itself providing financial products such as student loans. These questions are as consequential as they are contentious. By focusing on specific products such as checking accounts, credit cards, mortgages, small dollar loans, and student loans, this course will examine the role government has played, and the role it should play, with respect to each market. Particular emphasis will be placed on exploring alternative regulatory approaches, and alternative government roles, including their potential costs, benefits and risks in light of the available empirical evidence regarding how these markets are functioning and the outcomes consumers are experiencing.