Autonomous Oblast |
"Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power." -- Aldous Huxley |
THOMAS GEOGHEGAN | May 6, 2008
The American Prospect
Excerpt:
Business as Usury
Before Congress goes after bank misdeeds on Wall Street, let’s stop the petty theft on Main Street — predatory mortgages and usurious loans. Had we protected the poor and the weak, the problems of our mighty banks might not be so great.
We may be the first society since the Code of Hammurabi to be operating with no law against usury at all.
I’d at least like to hear a Democrat, any Democrat, call for a cap on interest rates. For Visa and MasterCard, I’d go for 12 percent. (Does anyone bid 11?)
As to payday loans, let Congress end them. But how will people get money? If people can’t get credit from Visa and MasterCard, let’s set up little state-run banks to offer little payday loans, or encourage NGOs to do so. New Dealers used to think in those terms. But they used to go to movies like It’s A Wonderful Life.
