The very organization entrusted to protect consumers against involvency, the Florida Insurance Commission, is leading the industry to solvency and leaving consumers wondering “who will pay their claims?”  The Tampa Bay Tribune quotes Steve Pociask of the Institute on Florida’s solvency problems, click here for the news.

Try this new consumer calculator!  It will estimate the cost of a new car, SUV, van or Truck, and it will estimate the fuel costs over a multi-year period.  Please et us know what you think and give us ideas for new calculators.

Florida’s onerous regulations are pushing insurance carriers out of the state.  Pociask and Fuhr explain why is this editorial published in the Orlando Sentinel.

Today, the Washington Times reported on the District of Columbia Bar Association’s attempt to prevent AVVO’s online service from giving consumer’s better information on its members — DC lawyers.  The article quotes Steve Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research.  Read the Times article here. 

While solvency protection, better consumer information and consumer protections are very important aspects of private automobile insurance regulation, a wide range of price regulations – such as prior approval, “file and use” and “use and file” – have persisted across the states with questionable results and benefits for consumers. The concern this raises is whether [...]

In several ConsumerGrams, we reported that consumers were overpaying on computer printer ink by a total of $6 billion a year, because manufacturers were not disclosing their printer or cartridge costs per page.  Furthermore, we showed that, over the useful life of a printer, the actually cost of the printer may be a little as a tenth of the cost of [...]

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If the stimulus plan is passed, the U.S. deficit will approach $1.7 trillion dollars.  Whatever the economic benefits of the plan, the cost of the plan will eventually need to be paid back.  Whether this payment comes in the form of increased taxes on consumers and/or business, because businesses will pass these costs along to consumers in the form of higher [...]

Economic Stimulus Plan is Not a Panacea   As 2009 begins, I reflect back on how the last bailout performed and reminisce about how all the money that was already wasted bailing out corporations at the expense of American taxpayers, and now it looks like more waste could be coming under the heading of an [...]