“Public need more, not less options”

So says Tim Miller of Center for Consumer Freedom in today’s Baxter Bulletin out of Arkansas.  Money quote:
“Borrowers are best served when they have more choices to pick from, not when politicians eliminate what is for many their only option.”   
The Payday Pundit has been making this point over and over.  Payday loans are an [...]

Left Leaning Blog Presents the Other Side of the Story in Ohio

Democrat Jeff Coryell provides some truly substantive discussion on a side of the payday loan issue which isn’t being covered by Ohio media.  
Joyce Beatty represents a district with severely underserved neighborhoods where both banking services and employment opportunities are scarce. (My own state representative, Barbara Boyd (D-Cleveland Heights), represents such areas in East Cleveland, and she has spoken to [...]

Update: Ohio

This article from the Columbus Dispatch captures the latest payday lending news from Ohio.   It looks like some Democrats might be trying to put a rate cap back on the table:
{House Speaker} Husted would not say if there are discussions include something other than a 36-percent cap, or if he personally is pushing for it. The [...]

Update: Payday Lending in Arkansas

Arkansas Attorney General McDaniel says he’s getting his way; payday lending stores are closing.   If the Payday Pundit hears anything different, we’ll post it here. 

Center for Responsible Lending lobbying?

This article from The Hill newspaper (an Inside-the-Beltway type publication) calls Eric Stein, ”the top lobbyist for the Center for Responsible Lending….”    However, no where on CRL’s website does it say that the group lobbies or has lobbyists on staff.  Here’s what it does say:
{CRL’s} Scope of Work
CRL’s staff includes attorneys, researchers, and policy analysts in North [...]

Center for Responsible Lending relies on “shoddy research”

Terry Kibbe of the Consumers Rights League weighs in.    From her piece in today’s Los Angeles Times:
“The Center for Responsible Lending and other so-called consumer advocacy groups rely on shoddy research in stirring gender, racial and class sensitivities to make the case against payday loans, as they did during their successful crusades in Georgia and North Carolina [...]

Citizens Can Make Their Own Financial Choices

That’s the thrust of the terrific op-ed “I’ll pay you Tuesday for payday loan today” in the South Carolina Times and Demcrat by Michael Hough of the American Legislative Exchange Council.  In criticizing legislative attempts to ban payday lending, he argues than payday lending is often a better choice that alternatives.  Money quote:
 
“Many times payday [...]

CFSA’s Tommy Moore responds to payday lending articles

The Community Financial Services Association, the association of responsible payday lenders, leads the industry fight for sensible reforms. Tommy Moore, CFSA’s executive vice president, works to educate the public on the truth about payday lending and short-term credit.  Here are two of his recent responses to media stories, the first from South Dakota’s Argus Leader and the other [...]

Industry critics want to re-open VA payday lending fight

If anything highlights the unreasonableness of payday lending critics, this article from the Daily Press in Virginia does.  Simply put, nothing short of a complete ban on payday lending will please them.  They are not to be believed when they say they support ”reforms.”    The point if made by an industry defender:
        ”…a spokesman for Advance America predicted [...]

Jobless claims hit 2-year high

Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press reports that the number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits last week shot up to the highest level in more than two years.
It’s worth noting that payday lenders employ more than 50,000 in the U.S.  Most of these are full-time employees with health-care benefits and paid vacation.  When [...]