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Askville: Usury
I suppose this could be considered political, so
Someone asked about a credit card with a 79% interest rate.
Usury laws throughout the United States were eliminated by Congress in 1980 after heavy lobbying from the credit-card industry. All state usury laws were overridden and effectively nullified at that time. Ronald Reagan proudly signed that bill.
Arguably, this was the beginning of the end of the United States' preeminence in manufacturing. Money put into the credit industry - including credit cards, bank loans, and payroll loan stores - could (and did) make sky-high profits of several hundred percent or more. Investment in manufacturing, on the other hand, had traditionally garnered a profit of less than 10% annually.
Capital (both domestic and foreign) flowed out of manufacturing and into the credit "industry" with a giant sucking sound. The US economy underwent a massive transformation, and the manufacturing sector began to die.
Our current situation is a direct result of all that; industry and manufacturing are effectively dead in the US, as is the labor movement that was born and died with them (a side-benefit for Wall Street). The financial sector - banks, and other shady financial entities - calls the shots. Even after they nearly destroyed the US economy, they are successfully standing off any real re-imposition of oversight and regulation.
The White House and most of Congress are owned by the financial sector, and little is done to hide that fact. Timothy Geithner takes many calls every day from the top executives on Wall Street, while blowing off calls from Congressmen. Wall Street is in charge, and the American people are being squeezed for every dime. We'll be lucky if we don't end up as a third-world country, with the rich living in armored enclaves and the peasantry living lives of desperate poverty and ignorance.
You think 79% is high? The effective annual interest on many payday-loan-store loans is over 800%.
Someone asked about a credit card with a 79% interest rate.
Usury laws throughout the United States were eliminated by Congress in 1980 after heavy lobbying from the credit-card industry. All state usury laws were overridden and effectively nullified at that time. Ronald Reagan proudly signed that bill.
Arguably, this was the beginning of the end of the United States' preeminence in manufacturing. Money put into the credit industry - including credit cards, bank loans, and payroll loan stores - could (and did) make sky-high profits of several hundred percent or more. Investment in manufacturing, on the other hand, had traditionally garnered a profit of less than 10% annually.
Capital (both domestic and foreign) flowed out of manufacturing and into the credit "industry" with a giant sucking sound. The US economy underwent a massive transformation, and the manufacturing sector began to die.
Our current situation is a direct result of all that; industry and manufacturing are effectively dead in the US, as is the labor movement that was born and died with them (a side-benefit for Wall Street). The financial sector - banks, and other shady financial entities - calls the shots. Even after they nearly destroyed the US economy, they are successfully standing off any real re-imposition of oversight and regulation.
The White House and most of Congress are owned by the financial sector, and little is done to hide that fact. Timothy Geithner takes many calls every day from the top executives on Wall Street, while blowing off calls from Congressmen. Wall Street is in charge, and the American people are being squeezed for every dime. We'll be lucky if we don't end up as a third-world country, with the rich living in armored enclaves and the peasantry living lives of desperate poverty and ignorance.
You think 79% is high? The effective annual interest on many payday-loan-store loans is over 800%.
no subject