Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders recently aligned on a public policy proposal: capping credit card interest rates at 10%. But this rare bipartisan agreement may have unintended consequences.

While the policy aims to make credit more affordable, it could unintentionally exclude low-credit-score borrowers from the credit card market. Drawing from my own prior research around the CARD Act, these borrowers may instead shift toward higher-risk alternatives like payday loans and pawn shops.

For students and professionals interested in transitioning to data science, policies like this--if they pass--provide valuable opportunities for analysis. Understanding their real-world effects through causal inference methods can highlight key insights into consumer behavior and market dynamics—skills that translate directly to high-paying tech roles focused on "what's the impact" questions where randomized experimentation is not feasible.

I dive in with a little more detail in this video: https://youtu.be/WCAhRzCMn9M

#datascience #datascientist #causalinference #publicpolicy