Two academics assert in a new white paper that the Dodd-Frank Act mortgage rules promulgated by the CFPB that were designed to protect consumers actually harmed middle-class borrowers and benefitted the wealthy. “Dodd-Frank aimed at reducing mortgage fees and abuses against vulnerable borrowers, but increased the costs of originating mortgages,” said University of Maryland professors Francesco D’Acunto and Alberto Rossi in their new paper. “We find it triggered a substantial redistribution of credit from middle-class households to wealthy households.” A back-of-the-envelope calculation that keeps constant the mortgage demand characteristics of 2010 shows financial institutions reduced their production of medium-sized loans by 15 percent in 2014, and increased making large loans by 21 percent, they said. D’Acunto and Rossi also found ...