Many families across the country face emergency expenses and times when their monthly budgets just don't cover it all. Like the rest of us, our soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines are consumers and young ones at that. Their steady paychecks and relative job security make them appealing targets for unscrupulous businesses. There are a variety of lenders that want to help. They offer their products to help them bridge those financial moments and gaps. It becomes a very different story; however, when these products involve predatory components such as egregiously high interest rates, which in...

Last year, Federal agents notified more than 3,000 companies that their computer systems had been hacked. There has been a lot of anxiety recently about the kind of information the Federal Government may be collecting about American citizens as part of their efforts to protect our country from the ongoing terrorist threat. But the truth is that private companies like Target hold vastly larger amounts of sensitive information about us than the government could ever think of doing. And they spend much less time and much less money protecting their sensitive data than the government does. If...

The rail industry looks far different than it did 30 years ago. Competition in the industry has decreased. Before enactment of the Staggers Act in 1980, there were approximately 40 large railroad companies. Today that figure would be closer to seven, so competition is down, and profits are up. In passing the Staggers Act, Congress recognized the need for a robust freight rail system. That law made sweeping regulatory changes which gave the railroad industry an opportunity to improve its finances and the ability to compete against other transportation modes. In that regard, the Staggers Act...

Millions of Americans go on cruises every year. Most of the time they have a nice trip and they return home safely, just like the cruise companies promise in their advertisements. But once in a while things can go terribly wrong. Ships catch fire, passengers fall overboard or get sick, crew members sexually assault passengers. Incidents like these are also a part of the cruise experience. In spite of the evidence that crimes, fires, mechanical failures, drownings, and mishandled medical emergencies occur with disturbing regularity on cruise ships, the industry continues to deny that it has a...

Whether you call it the MLR, Medical Loss Ratio, Law or the 80/20 rule, it is responsible for hundreds of thousands of rebate checks that American families and small businesses have been receiving from their health insurance companies for the past 2 years. Prior the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Many of the policies health insurance companies were selling to families and businesses were not giving any good value. In some markets, insurers were efficiently spending 90 cents or more of each premium dollar on patient care. But in other markets, especially the market for the...

Until recently, this Nation was the global leader when it came to building the greatest bridges, the greatest interstates, the greatest tunnels and canals and ports and railways. From coast to coast, we're reminded of those golden days of innovation and energy and vigor and innovation and investment that ultimately set our nation apart from the rest of the world. But those days of big ideas, bold ideas, bold investments and preparing for the future seem to be behind us. This nation, which once dared to dream, dared to lead, has retreated from the legacy of our predecessors. We're unable to...

No country, company, or consumer is immune to cybersecurity threats. The United States faces a growing array of threats from hackers, from criminals, terrorists, and nation states who seek to gain access to sensitive or classified information. This also includes efforts to steal intellectual property or consumers' personal information, deny the availability of normally accessible online services, or potentially sabotage the networks and control systems of critical infrastructure. While cyber threats are not new, we saw a number of notable cyber events last year. In 2014, security flaws such...