- Council Committee Passed the Freeze
- Carol Campbell Passes Away
- My first trip to the public library
- Fight digital exclusion
- What if half of Philadelphia didn't have roads?
- You know, let's not even worry about the City Commissioners office messing up voter registration processing
- Bold ideas to fix the budget
- Mayor Nutter's Town Hall Meeting Schedule
- City Releases Library Information to City Council
- Size of Philadelphia government?
Shameful Act Passes
Submitted by Dan U-A on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 10:41am.
Unsurprisingly, and with little sense of shame, the State Senate and the Governor joined the State House, and passed a bill that puts even more of their constituents at risk from predators, as they legalized Wall Street's latest scam, for-profit credit counseling. (The last time I talked about this bill, I was greeted with a finger-jabbing tirade from a State Rep who called me a demagogue, and then started threatening me.)
The refrain from Dwight Evans is familiar:
Evans said for-profit companies have found ways to reach clients for years despite a ban on their operation. He said his bill will for the first time impose licensing requirements and give the state Department of Banking the authority to regulate the industry.
"In a Wild West, unregulated environment, anything can happen," Evans said in an interview. "Now both nonprofits and for-profits will have to meet standards, and consumers will know they're dealing with a regulated industry."
Yes, if there is anything that tells you that an industry will closely follow your law, it is the fact that an industry ignores your law.
I think I am going to start a business called Dan's Pickpocket. I will do it for a couple years, spread some lobbying dough and muscle around in Harrisburg, and then demand my industry be legitimized. Hell, maybe my pickpocketing futures could get rated, securitized and sold? Then we would be talking!
(And thank you for the parting gift to your legacy, Senator Fumo!)
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This is INSANE
Why does Pennsylvania allow for-profit credit counseling along with permitting predatory lenders such as payday cash advance stores to operate in the state?
Most payday lending profits leave the Commonwealth and leaves almost-bankrupt Pennsylvanians up to their ears in debt, and payday lenders raid the City's tax base as insane interest charges leave little left for borrowers to spend on items that generate sales taxes which generate revenue for Philadelphia and for Pennsylvania.
Birmingham Alabama is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and Philadelphia is getting closer to it each and every day.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/news/economy/Birmingham_brink_Whitford.f...
We wouldn't need credit counseling if Pennsylvania stepped up to the plate and enforced rigorous bans on loan sharking, setting limits on out-of-state credit card operators to protect Pennsylvanians from Delaware laws, and banning check cashing cash advance stores which underwrite payday loans, because these stores target and exploit minorities.
I spoke to a PA Republican
I spoke to a PA Republican rep. (who shall remain unnamed) about it, who noted that it passed with flying colors. Apparently, PA is comprised of other regions that don't contain Philly or Pittsburgh, and thus, minority-targeting, "predatory"-counseling practices aren't a big deal outside of our realm.
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- All politics is local.
Well after all ACORN is against predatory lending
and we all know that Bill Ayers and his band of crypto-Islamo-terrorists (known as ACORN) are hell bent on the destruction of America. Therefore predatory lending is good. Its the form of loan sharking that "real" Americans support.
Sorry, I've been looking at other forums and getting bummed out about the level of ACORN-Ayers-Obama hysteria the right is intent on whipping into a fury this year.
BTW- way, way off topic but did anybody see this?
Meanwhile that stallwart of left journalism, the Wall St. Journal, ran this.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.