Money
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Tricking Consumers Into Expensive Pay-by-phone Fees
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is concerned about companies misrepresenting the purpose and amount of pay-by-phone fees, which can result in consumers incurring charges for services they don't need. For example, a recent Bureau enforcement action alleged that a company and its service provider misled consumers into paying a $14.95 pay-by-phone fee by deceptively calling it a "processing" charge. The fee was actually for posting payment to the account the same day. more »
Diversity in Innovation: Documenting a Systematic and Persistent Lack of Female, Hispanic, and African American Labor Market Participation in the Innovation Sector
The representation of women, Hispanics, and African Americans in MBA programs as well as advanced science and engineering degrees has been substantially higher than their representation in the venture capital and entrepreneurial sectors for the past two decades. We contrast this experience with that of Asians over the same time period. Asians started the time period with a much higher representation, compared to their percentage of the labor force, in the venture capital and entrepreneurial sector. more »
Janet Yellen at Brown University: So We All Can Succeed; 125 Years of Women's Participation in the Economy
"Since 1891, women have made tremendous strides in their ability to pursue their dreams of education and meaningful work and to support themselves and their families. In pursuing these goals, women have helped improve working conditions for all workers and have been a major factor in America's prosperity over the past century and a quarter. Despite this progress, evidence suggests that many women remain unable to achieve their goals. The gap in earnings between women and men, although smaller than it was years ago, is still significant; women continue to be underrepresented in certain industries and occupations; and too many women struggle to combine aspirations for work and family." more »
Lawmakers Look to Curb Foreign Influence in State Elections: Would They Bar Political Spending By Businesses In Which Non-US citizens Have a Significant Ownership Stake?
The ride-hailing company Uber, along with its competitor Lyft, together spent $9 million on a 2016 ballot initiative in Austin, Texas, that would have overturned the city’s requirement that drivers for the companies undergo fingerprint-based background checks. The Chinese ride-hailing company Didi invested $100 million in Lyft, and Uber announced a few weeks after the election that Saudi Arabia had secured a 5 percent stake in the company with a $3.5 billion investment. more »