The Elite and Payday Lending

From Daily Kos, “Hillary doesn’t think Obama is elitist, neither does she think he is out of touch with working class Americans. At least no more so than she is herself, or McCain is, or any politician that isn’t living paycheck to paycheck is.”
According to Wikipedia, “Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals [...]

California committee action on payday lending bill

This Sacramento Bee story details Monday’s action in the California Assembly’s Banking and Finance Committee.    

Analysis of Ark. payday lending situation

The Arkansas Business Journal picks up on an Associated Press story that analyzes how we got to this point in Arkansas.  This paragraph gets to the heart of the matter:
“The 1999 law {the Check Cashers Act} declared that income earned by payday lenders was a fee and not interest, avoiding the 17 percent limit on [...]

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 [...]

Payday Loans a “Godsend”

In the comments section below a pro-payday loan piece in the Sandusky Register (requires a subscription to read full article) one reader had this to say:
Scott wrote on Apr 6, 2008 11:48 PM:
” I know firsthand what a Godsend these places can be in an emergency. Yes, I had to pay a fee [...]

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 [...]

Witchita Eagle Gets it Wrong

The Center for Consumer Freedom responds to a recent editorial in Kansas’ Witchita Eagle.
“…The Eagle editorial ignored these critical facts while narrowly focusing an ad hominem critique on the payday industry alone. These lenders earn a mere fraction of what traditional banks make on service fees. In 2003, bounced-check and insufficient-fund fees generated $22 billion in [...]

Tucson Citizen Taken to Task

The Tucson Citizen published an excellent response by  Matthew Glans of the Heartland Institute to this recent flawed column.
His closing point?
Payday lenders are serving a group of consumers essentially blacklisted from more mainstream lending practices. In the end, consumers, not government officials, should determine whether a payday loan will meet their needs.
Well said.