Opening fire on predatory lenders?
On the 6th, he blasted the industry for its ability to wield legislative influence to bottle up efforts to rein them in:
Payday lenders have shown their true color — money green — and they’ll do anything to keep their gravy train riding roughshod over our state.
Shamefully, this isn’t just the fault of payday lenders. Lawmakers sanctioned this predatory business and have the authority to rein it in, but have decided they won’t. Legislators such as Sens. Jim Ritchie and Jake Knotts helped ensure nothing meaningful got done this year
http://www.thestate.com/140/story/84681.html
Considering the fees they charge, the least banks could do is help their customers who are being taken advantage of by payday lenders. One of the few requirements for getting one of the short-term loans is that you have a checking account.
Despite the fact that they put their own customers at risk, banks have no problem extending multi-million-dollar credit lines to large lenders, particularly the few that are publicly traded.Backing from major banks and investment firms such as Morgan Stanley has helped payday lenders pull off a major coup: They have been able to take a faulty business model that depends on people’s inability to repay their debts and convince Wall Street investors to buy into it.
http://www.thestate.com/140/story/85776.html
Shame on the General Assembly for not standing up to an industry that has become as widespread and predatory upon our state's working poor as the video poker industry had become in the 1990s. Once more, we become the best, last resort for an industry which has been run out of other states. When will we do better?
Look for more discussion about this subject in the near future.
Moye, one day we will all be judged, so what we elect to tolerate will be reflected in the conviction. How's your rap sheet look?
Legal or not, predatory lending will be around as will backroom gambling. Laws against murder only provide punishment for the act, which, as punishment, is the deterrent. Perversions of lassiez faire notions to the contrary, a free market allows lending, but certainly may restrict practices as we restrict euthanasia from medicine. It may be telling that banks and S&Ls that have tended to be the "ethical" lenders of the past, may have a dog in this arena in the relatively predatory practices of the credit card companies that may jack your rate on whimsical excuse that they didn't open your payments until after the grace period ended... go figure. As to the casinos, for Charleston at least, at the worst, you would be bringing some of the historically shadier activities out of the closets, into the light along with dogfighting and cockfighting, though no cards, roulette wheels or poker chips are harmed in the process. Oh I forgot, doing so we abandon the right to outrage over the cruelty to animals inehrent in dog fighting and cockfighting.
Do we legislate a religious way of life? Not allowed under the first amendment, though pious secular anti-smokers and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers certainly might be shoved, even seuclarly, into that category. Ditto the tree huggers, like Earl (though I suspect he's more of a woman hugger at heart).