Payday: Lobbyists winning this one
The lobbyists are winning this battle, not the consumers.
As this newspaper has noted in the past, payday lenders are legal businesses whose practices are as old as commerce itself. However, the industry tends to target the poor and vulnerable who have a lack of access to credit or know-how to obtain other loans from more traditional institutions.
But legislators know the pitfalls and dangers of payday lending and they know that in 1998, they created the loophole that allows the 572 percent equivalent.
Now, when the time has obviously come to correct that mistake, lawmakers are caving in to election- year pressure from the industry, much of which is represented by out-of-state interests whose companies earn lower rates in other states. That’s shameful.
Clarion Ledger Editorial
1/23/11
Magnolia Tribune
