Um.. isn't usury condemned in the Bible? Didn't Jesus horsewhip the moneychangers from the Temple? Where is the outrage over this type of moral bankruptcy, or is the trumped-up "War on Christmas" nothing more than the right of a store greeter to mouth "Merry Christmas!" as folks scramble to spend every last cent at the mall to honor Jesus' birthday with a new plasma TV?
From the NYT: (excerpts)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/us/23payday.html?hp&ex=1166936400&en=74f7b854ab02e1e9&ei=5094&partner=homepageSeductively Easy, Payday Loans Often Snowball (snipping)
"Mr. Milford said he had stopped taking out new loans, but many other residents of the Gallup area and countless more people across the country are visiting payday lenders this month, places with names like Cash Cow, Payday Plus and Fast Buck, to get advances of a few hundred dollars to help with holiday expenses.
"While such lending is effectively banned in 11 states, including New York, through usury or other laws, it is flourishing in the other 39. The practice is unusually rampant and unregulated in New Mexico, where the Center for Responsible Lending, a private consumer group, calculates that nationally payday loans totaled at least $28 billion in 2005, doubling in five years.
"The loans are quick and easy. Customers are usually required to leave a predated personal check that the lender can cash on the next payday, two or four weeks later. They must show a pay stub or proof of regular income, like Social Security, but there is no credit check, which leads to some defaults but, more often, continued extension of the loan, with repeated fees..."
(snipping)
"In many states, including New Mexico, lenders also make no effort to see if customers have borrowed elsewhere, which is how Mr. Milford could take out so many loans at once. If they repay on time, borrowers pay fees ranging from $15 per $100 borrowed in some states to, in New Mexico, often $20 or more per $100, which translates into an annualized interest rate, for a two-week loan, of 520 percent or more.
"In September, Congress, responding to complaints that military personnel were the targets of “predatory lenders,” imposed a limit of 36 percent annual interest on loans to military families. The law will take effect next October and is expected to choke off payday lending to this group because, lenders say, the fees they could charge for a two-week loan would be negligible, little more than 10 cents per day, said Don Gayhardt, president of the Dollar Financial Corporation, which owns a national chain of lenders called Money Marts..."
MUCH MORE
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
