Myth vs. Reality – Predatory Lending Association

Myth: It is unethical to charge a poor person 100 times the interest rate a rich person would pay.

Reality: We live in a free market society, if the working poor are willing to pay 100 times the interest rate a rich person would pay (e.g. 550% APR instead of 5.5% APR) there is clearly a market need for our service.

Myth: Debt traps are a bad thing.

Reality: Debt traps are the cornerstone of payday profitability. Although the 2 week term of a payday loan traps most people in debt, there are a few customers who are able to pay off the loan on time.

Myth: The government should regulate predatory payday lenders.

Reality: Although it is true that our government regulates some free market activities such as prostitution and drug abuse, payday lending is fundamentally different because it is a financial service.

Myth: Payday lending is comparable to selling yourself into slavery.

Reality: Although there is a market need for slavery, people do not choose to sell themselves into slavery. Free choice is the difference between payday lending and slavery.

What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?

I’m also putting less emphasis on search, moving the box to the bottom right and replacing it with a dog…

Brilliant.

Barely Getting By and Facing a Cold Maine Winter – New York Times

The disabled, and there are many, may have it hardest. Dolly Jordan of Milbridge has a history of two bad marriages, a bone-crushing auto accident and poor health, and looks and feels older than 61. With osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and obesity, she spends most of the day in a wheelchair and uses a combination of a gripper, a broom and a cane to make her bed or hang her laundry.

Come winter, she hangs a blanket over the front door of her little red wooden house, where she has lived alone the last 10 years and which sits on concrete blocks with no foundation. She turns the heat off at night to save fuel.

Her disability payment is $623 a month, plus she gets just $10 from the state and $74 in food stamps. After paying the housing tax and her utility bills, she said, she must watch every remaining penny. A daughter drives her to the distant town of Ellsworth for cheaper shopping.

Like many, she keeps a police scanner on as a diversion and, unable to afford cable, she watches the same videos over and over — her favorite is “On Golden Pond.”

“I wish for bedtime to come,” she said. “The days are so long.”

Easing down a ramp to her mailbox is a perilous 15-minute ordeal. Still, she said, “I wait for Fridays.”

“That’s junk-mail day, and I read all the ads. That’s my best day.”

She added, “There’s always older people out there who have it harder.”

The war in Iraq costs $12 billion dollars per month.

That’s $7,000 per second.

There must, someday, be a reckoning.

Retail Desperation on Display in Early Hours – New York Times

Bleary-eyed shoppers descended on suburban malls and downtown shopping centers across the country this morning in an annual retail ritual that appeared to break records for consumer sleep deprivation.

Several major chains, like J.C. Penney and Kohl’s, opened at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than last year, dangling half-price discounts and coupons offering $10 off to lure customers out of bed.

Most discount chains, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Toys R Us and Sears, opened at 5 a.m., with department stores such as Macy’s waiting until 6 a.m. and Saks Fifth Avenue holding off until 7 a.m.

The extreme hours highlight how desperate stores are to win over consumers this holiday season, which is expected to be the weakest in five years because of rising energy prices, falling home values and a tight credit market.