Debt Hacker: Tools for a Debt-Free Life » Politics

Credit Card Rate Caps ‘Interest’ Obama and Clinton

Mark — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:31:32 +0000

While both of the Democratic contenders for the November Presidential nomination have a lot of good ideas, here’s one that we, at Debt Hacker, really like: cap usurious interest rates on credit cards.Where the two could not seem to agree on what that cap should be (Clinton proposes the cap at 30% but Obama feels that is still too high), they are united in finding creative ways to help Americans get out of the many financial messes that have come about in our recent fool’s paradise of ‘no money down’ and ‘easy credit’.

According to a post on The Swamp, credit card interest rates aren’t the only thing Clinton and Obama are proposing pointing out that

Clinton also noted that the Ohio cities of Dayton, Toledo, Akron and Cleveland are among the nation’s top 20 cities for home foreclosures. She has called for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a five-year freeze on adjustable rate mortgages for troubled homeowners.

Clinton used the home foreclosure issue as well as her support for a mandated universal health insurance program to contrast herself with Obama. Obama has called for tougher penalties for predatory home lenders. On health care, he has proposed a plan to mandate coverage for children, which he contends would help make all insurance more affordable.

There are many other economic areas in which the two are promising reformation, but in the short run, if they can get the feds to clamp down on credit card interest rates, that will be a great help for the many American families suffering from our country’s present economic malaise.

Read the full post on The Swamp.

Cash Advance Lenders Cozy up to Politicians

Mark — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:59:28 +0000

You’ve probably heard of the health care lobby, the firearms lobby and the tobacco lobby but did you know that the payday loan industry has a lobby, too? Of course they do. In an article on Myrtle Beach Online, Aaron Gould Sheinin details how politicians, especially Democrats, are getting “plied with contributions”. In fact, it is estimated that the candidates for the upcoming 2008 election have received around $64,000 from the payday lending lobby and that number is growing.

The reasons are as complex as with any other lobby. The businesses are trying to protect their interests against a growing discontent among the public. This is particularly true in South Carolina where there are an abundance of cash advance and payday loan stores and an equally formidable body of opponents, lawmakers and consumer advocates who are trying to get the companies shut down or at least regulated. The latter point is very much the writing on the wall since legislation was passed recently capping interest rates at 36 percent for payday loans to military employees. As soon as that was passed, the seed was planted in the mind of consumer groups to expand that protection to payday loan and cash advance rates unilaterally—a prospect that has lenders understandably terrified.

While the article investigates specific contributions in South Carolina, it illuminates the larger political stage and goings on in congress, particularly with the debate over capping interest rates which has been under deliberation in several other states as well.

Read the full post at Myrtle Beach Online.