A few months ago, President Obama made it sound like he would systematically take care of everything wrong with America. One of those items is payday loans. Well, the economy sucks and if it does not get better, he’ll have bigger problems to deal with, like not getting re-elected.
Now, there are a few bills out there. Coincidentally, they’re spearheaded by two Illinois congressmen. One is a US Senator, Dick Durbin; and the other is Representative Luis Gutierrez who is top Democrat on the Financial Services subcommittee. Dick Durbin wants to cap rates at 36%, while Luis Guteirrz has put together a real bill that addresses the issue.
If you want to read Luis Gutierrez proposal, you can do it here. Personally, I think the industry should back him unconditionally. He really stuck his neck out, in my opinion.
Unfortunately, the Associated Press is all over him, so this article titled, The Influence game, is surfacing on pretty much every major newspaper.
I wonder if the passing of this bill would allow payday lending to happen again in the black out states, like Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virgnia, Puerto Rico? Doesn’t federal law trump state law?
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