This weekend, two Wall Street institutions, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, collapsed, mostly because of their dealing in subprime lending. Lehman Brothers, in particular, stirs memories because they worked hand in hand with one of Philadelphia’s most notorious predatory lenders of the late 1990's: United Companies Lending. With the help of Lehman Brothers, UC Lending cut a swath through working class neighborhoods, sending scores of Philadelphians into foreclosure.

The destruction caused by UC Lending and others was bad enough that City Council did something about it, and passed strong anti-predatory lending legislation. But, as I have documented before, in a fight led by our own Dwight Evans, the State Legislature killed the bill, offering faux regulation. Since then, upward of 40,000 foreclosures have been filed against Philadelphia homeowners.

40,000 foreclosures. The timing then, of this, is almost too shameful to be true:

Suppose you're in a financial jam. You've maxed your credit cards, they're about to repossess your car. Then you see a cable-TV ad offering one easy payment to pull you out of the mess.

Good idea? Maybe, maybe not.

Consumer activists and nonprofit credit counselors are alarmed about a bill primed for passage in the state Legislature that would permit for-profit companies to offer credit counseling in Pennsylvania.

The bill would also limit fees and impose state licensing requirements for nonprofits as well. But consumer advocates say opening the field to private firms will end up putting thousands of financially strapped Pennsylvanians into plans that only get them further in the hole.

"Consumers need to be getting advice from disinterested parties who can give them the best options," said Patricia Hasson, president of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Delaware Valley.

The consumer vultures of America, finished feasting on predatory mortgage loans, rapid refunds, and payday loans have found their next product. Despite the fact that they so poisoned our cities that their demise is killing Wall Street, here they come again, seeing what scraps they can pull from financially troubled Pennsylvanians.

And who, by chance, do you suspect is paving their way into Pennsylvania?

Democratic Philadelphia state Rep. Dwight Evans, the prime sponsor of the credit-counseling bill, said it's designed to bring licensing and consumer protections to an industry that is effectively unregulated in Pennsylvania.

He said the nonprofit agencies that want to keep private companies out of the credit-counseling business are denying consumers choice and the benefits of competition.

"I'm tired of people who assume that people who use this service are not smart enough to make good choices," Evans said. "It's a patronizing attitude, that we have to save people from themselves."

"Our job in government is to set standards and provide for regulation, and that's what we're doing in this bill," Evans said.

That quote sounds familiar… sort of like this one, in a letter to the editor Evans sent to the Daily News as he was in the process of killing our predatory lending bill, in 2001:

To call it anti-consumer misses the complexity of this issue. The best way to stop predatory lending practices is to give teeth to the state Department of Banking.

This is not a function of local government. House Bill 1703 provides the Department of Banking with extensive enforcement authority. We must not close off sources to those who need loans most.

For all the good he has done, Dwight Evans has a terrible, and shameful history of exposing struggling Philadelphians to financial predators. And now, right as Wall Street and the American economy collapse under the weight of predatory loans that he helped protect, there he goes again.

The bill, a wolf in sheep's clothing, passed unanimously in the State House. (Here is looking at you, Josh Shapiro, Babette Josephs and Tony Payton.) It is now before the State Senate. To our State Senators, as you consider this bill, I have to ask: Given the history here, as Dwight and the financial predators line up against every consumer group in the state...

Who do you trust?