Tag Archive for ‘payday loan’
Hear Me Speak at the Cleveland City Club
An alternative title for this post might be: Presidents, World Leaders, and Me. I happily said yes when I was invited to address the Cleveland City Club — and then I received a more formal invitation in the mail that listed some of its past speakers. The City Club was having me for its Friday [...]
Pinch Hitting on PBS’s NewsHour
I’ve been a fan of Ray Suarez’s work dating back to his days hosting NPR’s “Talk of the Nation.” My favorite part was always the brief essay he he would write to introduce that segment of the show. The man can write — and radio gave his words a real intimacy, almost like he was [...]
Payday: “like mosquitoes adapting”
Sure, sure, everyone was focused on whether Ohio would go for Obama or McCain in November 2008 but the question that drew me to the state a couple of times that fall was whether voters there would side with the payday lenders, who were seeking the right to continue charging fees that worked out to [...]
Fat Times for the Poverty Industry
How good are hard times for those in the poverty business? Those in the payday industry and other storefront lenders claim they’re struggling along but the numbers show otherwise. Read my piece in TheAtlantic.com exploring why with the financial misery high, these are fat times for many businesses operating on the economic fringes. Defaults may [...]
Excerpt in Slate’s “The Big Money”
Click here to read about Tim Thomas, who owns Daddy’s Money Pawn Shop in Wichita, Kansas. I met Thomas at the annual check cashers convention in Las Vegas. What I loved about talking with him was his complete candor about the dollars and cents of the poverty industry, walking me through the various fees he [...]
Pioneers of Subprime: Allan Jones and the Payday Loan
I write about Allan Jones – W. Allan Jones, Jr., if I were still on staff at The New York Times – in a piece for The Huffington Post. The Cliff’s Notes version of that post: Let’s just say that Mr. Jones (pictured) and those around him are not the most progressive bunch on issues [...]
BROKE ‘dissects,’ ‘eviscerates’ the ‘vulture finance’ industry
“Rivlin opens up, dissects and eviscerates the gigantic industry of vulture finance…a fascinating book.”
Poverty, Inc. Asks, ‘Why Us?’
The subprime credit card issuer charging interest rates of 25 percent or more. All those subprime auto lenders charging 20 or 22 or 25 percent a year in interest for a car loan. Others in the poverty industry. All are saying the same thing: We didn’t cause the Great Recession of 2008 so why is [...]
Book Excerpt in Biz Wk: “Payday Nation”
Payday Nation: How lending to people against their future paychecks went from a single shack to a strip mall staple
Planet Money and the Payday Loan
I love the way this podcast from the talented folks at NPR’s “Planet Money” opens: with an ad the payday lending industry created to oppose a range of reform measures working their way through Congress (the subject of my last blog entry). Except here, when the industry is calling the shots, they’re not payday lenders [...]
