LENDERS TARGETED: Legislation being introduced today by U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan would try to rein in payday lenders, who make $40 billion a year by offering short-term loans with annual percentage rates that often average more than 400 percent and, critics say, trap borrowers in cycles of debt. (N&O)
CHIEF WEIGHS IN: Raleigh Police Chief Harry Patrick Dolan has joined an effort to defeat a proposal in Arizona to force police there to ask about the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally.
The measure would also allow citizens to sue police and sheriff's departments if
they felt they were not sufficiently enforcing immigration laws. The Arizona legislature has passed the bill and sent it to Gov. Jan Brewer, who has not said whether she will sign it into law. (N&O)
HARD OUT THERE FOR A DEM: Cal Cunningham is the only Democratic Senate candidate whose campaign has been flush enough to mount a television advertising campaign for the primary May 4, but all Democrats have struggled to raise money this year. (N&O)
Comments
Kay Hagan should study history...
April 22, 2010 - 12:59pm — plusafThe October issue of Reason Magazine included a telling article on Payday Loans, and in light of Ms. Hagan's stated goals, she should be made aware of the Law Of Unintended Consequences...
http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/25/payday-of-reckoning
"Payday of Reckoning
New laws aimed at kneecapping payday lenders will end up hurting the poor.
Katherine Mangu-Ward from the October 2009 issue"
"A 2004 survey by the Cypress Research Group, conducted on behalf of the Community Financial Services Association of America, found that while 65 percent of customers said they chose payday loans because of convenience (less paperwork, quick and easy process, fast approval), 85 percent said they had savings accounts and 35 percent had credit cards with credit available. A 2009 study from the Center for American Progress found that people taking out payday loans were overwhelmingly doing so to purchase necessities or cope with emergencies, not to engage in discretionary spending. Payday borrowers are full participants in the American financial system. They happen to have selected the services of a payday lender to meet their particular needs." [web page 4 of article.]
maybe the "logical conclusion" is the wrong one?
Kay, look again, please...
Alan Falk
Northwest Raleigh
I would think that payday
April 22, 2010 - 9:42am — lpetrouI would think that payday lending regulations should be a state matter not a federal matter.