CFPB

This New York times piece details the inner workings of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB)  regarding regulation of payday lending.

I do not have anything to add to the substance but wanted to note that I know the memo author, Jon Lanning, pretty well, as I was on his dissertation committee. We have stayed in regular touch since he finished his doctorate and dined together (with various others) on multiple occasions in DC. I encouraged him to leave the CFPB for the Chicago Fed, advice that I feel even better about ex post having read the article and with the pandemic at hand to make career moves of any sort more challenging.

I also want to add that Jon is both an incredibly nice fellow and a very serious empirical reseacher. He cares about getting the numbers right and he puts a large weight on evidence in forming his opinions. He is also not much of a rabble-rouser - quite the contrary, I think of him as well over on the chill side of the spectrum. It would take a lot to get him to write a memo like this.

Hat tip: another member of Jon's committee