Melissa Jacoby with Sen. Elizabeth Warren: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal

Рет қаралды 557

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California

25 күн бұрын

Bankruptcy is the busiest federal court in America. In theory, bankruptcy in America exists to cancel or restructure debts for people and companies that have way too many debts-a safety valve designed to provide a mechanism for restarting lives and businesses when things go wrong financially.
Legal scholar Melissa B. Jacoby argues that bankruptcy has also become an escape hatch for powerful individuals, corporations, and governments, contributing in unseen and poorly understood ways to race, gender, and class inequality in America. When cities go bankrupt, for example, police unions enjoy added leverage while police brutality victims are denied a seat at the negotiating table; the system is more forgiving of civil rights abuses than of the parking tickets disproportionately distributed in African American neighborhoods. Across a broad range of crucial issues, Jacoby reveals the hidden mechanisms by which bankruptcy impacts everything from sexual harassment to health care, police violence to employment discrimination, and the opioid crisis to gun violence.
Join us for a special online-only program with Professor Jacoby in conversation with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Jacoby photo by Teddy Denton.
July 1, 2024
Speakers
Melissa Jacoby
Graham Kenan Professor of Law, University of North Carolina; Author, Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes American More Unequal; X @melissabjacoby
In conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren
U.S. Senator(D-MA); X @ewarren
👉Join our Email List! www.commonwealthclub.org/email
🎉 BECOME a MEMBER: www.commonwealthclub.org/memb...
Discover the rich history of Commonwealth Club World Affairs (CCWA), the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. The product of a 2023 merger between The Commonwealth Club of California, founded in 1903, and The World Affairs Council of Northern California, founded in 1947, CCWA is dedicated to reenergizing dynamic civic space in the Bay Area by cultivating new ideas, connection and action through engaging live programs and inspiring stories.
CCWA organizes weekly in-person, virtual and hybrid events covering politics, culture, society, the economy and much more. Join us as we reimagine what a public affairs forum can be in the 21st century.
In addition to the videos🎥 shared here, CCWA reaches millions of listeners through its podcast🎙and weekly national radio program📻.

Пікірлер: 4

@monawhitney3421 23 күн бұрын

Also, I am old enough to remember going to a CPA to file my income taxes, and one of the deductions we were allowed to claim was the interest paid on our credit card accounts. This encouraged people to boost the economy by actually buying things. Then, all of a sudden, that deduction was taken away from us. Why?

@MDL5676 22 күн бұрын

I am, by no means, a fan of Elizabeth Warren, but I have to commend her on this interview. She was informed, intelligent and asked really probing and relevant questions. That is so rare to see in interviewers nowadays, where the interviewers clearly don't know what they are talking about. So I tip my cap to you Sen. Warren. I appreciate you conducting this interview in such a meaningful, informative way. Regardless of anything I may disagree with you about, I can still appreciate your efforts. Good work always deserves to be recognized. Bravo.

@monawhitney3421 23 күн бұрын

Can you explain to me why credit card APRs, which are supposed to be linked to the prime lending rate, never, ever go down when the prime rate goes down. With the pandemic, prime lending rates actually went down to 0%, and I was able to refinance my home mortgage to obtain a 2.75% rate. But not only did my credit card rates not go down, they actually were raised. I currently have a FICO score of 790, always pay my bills on time, and always pay more than the minimum amount due for my credit cards. They still keep getting raised consistently. Starting out at a high of 14.9 to 16.9 over four cards/banks, they have been raised over time to be over 24%!! I know the Federal Reserve raised rates in the past year in order to slow down the economy. But why did my credit card rates NOT go down when the Fed LOWERED the rate to 0?? I just don't get it