The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [130]
65 Quoted by Susan Chandler, “Stuck in the Middle,” Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2000, C1.
66 Kate Griffin, “How Hard Is Too Hard?” Credit Card Management (December 1997), pp. 26-30 (discussing AT&T practices); “GE to Pay $100 Million Settlement,” AP Online, January 22, 1999; “Stores Chain Settles Cases on Bankruptcy Violations,” Fulton County Daily Report, February 25, 1998 (reporting Federated Department Stores’ $11.3 million settlement covering twenty states); “May Stores Settles Suit over Collection Tactics, Will Pay $22 Million,” Wall Street Journal, November 3, 1998; “Card Notes: Another Retailer Settles Reaffirmation Suit,” Credit Card News, December 1, 1998 (detailing a Circuit City subsidiary’s agreement to pay $6 million to an estimated 11,000 customers); Lynn Arditi, “Bankrupt Credit-Card Holders to Be Reimbursed by JCPenney,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, December 10, 1998 (discussing the company’s $11.7 million settlement spanning forty-two states and covering 11,000 consumers). After this rapid-fire round of settlements, a few court opinions put an end to the reaffirmation suit frenzy, declaring that there was no private right of action available to debtors in these situations. See William L. Stern, “The End of ‘Re-Aff’ Class Actions,” Consumer Bankruptcy News, March 6, 2001. Not all of these companies threatened to seize families’ goods. Some sent bills, made collection calls, or threatened to take people to court—all in violation of federal law. See, e.g., Bruce Mohl, “Federated, 20 States in $10m Settlement,” Boston Globe, February 18, 1998.
67 According to the Federal Trade Commission, in most states, used mattresses can be resold as long as they meet certain labeling and processing requirements. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, “Consumers Can ‘Rest Easy’ Following FTC Settlements with Two Used Mattress Resellers,” news release, June 14, 2000. Available at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/06/mattress2.htm [3/6/2003]. However, we have no evidence that Sears is in the used mattress processing business. So, even though the woman was incorrect about the law of mattress sales, it was certainly reasonable to be skeptical of Sears’s intent to repossess.
68 United States Trustee’s Response Regarding Reaffirmation Agreements Between Debtors and Sears, Roebuck & Company, In re Francis Michael Latanowich, 207 B.R. 326 (Bankr. D. Mass. 1997) (No. 95-18280-CJK).
69 Barnaby J. Feder, “Spending It: The Harder Side of Sears,” New York Times, July 20, 1997.
70 David Snyder, “Is Sears a Bank Or a Retailer? It Must Come Clean on Credit,” Crain’s Chicago Business, November 3, 1997. Since that time, Sears has substantially expanded its credit card operations, launching a MasterCard that can be used outside the store. Today it is the third largest MasterCard issuer in the world. Joe Hallinan and Amy Merrick, “Credit Cards Swipe Sears Profits,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2003.
71 Today many states have technical usury laws on the books, but in many cases the caps are so high that they provide little protection. Because out-of-state lenders can evade those laws, local lenders have pressed state legislatures to raise usury caps so that they are not put at a competitive disadvantage. Moreover, even if a state keeps its rates low, that provides little protection for its residents, since out-of-state lenders simply override local laws by incorporating in other states and marketing higher-rate loans across state borders.
72 Jerry W. Markham, A Financial History of the United States, volume 3, From the Age of Derivatives into the New Millennium (1970-2001) (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2002), pp. 73-74.
73 Jones and Zywicki, “It’s Time for Means-Testing.”
74 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Historical Statistics on Banking, Commercial Bank Reports, Table CB04, Net Income, FDIC-Insured Commercial Banks (Washington, DC: 2002). Available at http://www2.fdic.gov/hsob/ [3/20/2003].