“The Market Oracle” (gotta love that name) thinks President Obama’s reforms are lame.   The proof?  Industry doesn’t hate them enough.    From the blog post:

Confronting the wreckage of a debt crisis worse than any since the Great Depression, Mr. Obama has achieved what no Republican could have: rescuing the Bush Administration’s pro-creditor policies that fostered the Bubble Economy in the first place. “Most of the financial sector lobby community is happy with what has emerged,” the Financial Times summarized. A spokesman for the Financial Services Forum, a major Wall Street lobbying organization, called the proposals “careful and balanced.” With such endorsements, victims of predatory lending have good reason to worry. The Obama plan is just the opposite from reforming the financial system along lines that progressive Democrats and other critics have urged.

The Financial Services Forum should say it hates the reforms just to get the crazies off it back.

This is important.

From a new report that can be found at here: (the link will take you to state facts sheets as well.)

Key Findings:

• In addition to being a valuable source of credit for many consumers, the payday loan industry makes significant contributions to U.S. and state economies.
• The industry contributed over $10 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007.
• The payday lending industry supports over 155,000 jobs nationally¹, including 77,088 people directly employed in 23,586 jobs in storefront locations.²
• Overall, the total labor income impact from the payday loan industry is $6.4 billion:
  • Through direct employment, payday loan stores contributed $2.9 billion in labor income, which translated to approximately $37,689 per store employee.³
  • Suppliers to the payday lending industry contributed $1.4 billion in labor income as an indirect result of the revenues generated by the payday loan industry.
  • $2.1 billion was generated from the wages of payday loan store employees and supplier indutries’ employees as they were spent in local economies.
• The payday lending industry helped to generate over $2.6 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2007.

Savemypawnshop.com took a poll of pawnshop owners on the issue of S.500, Senator Dick Durbin’s federal 36% rate cap bill.  Eighty-nine percent said they would have to close.

The Consumer Rights Coalition is taking a poll.

A reader doesn’t like the idea of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency:

This should scare the crap out of everyone. No one will be able to get credit if this bill passes.

Lenders will move to other industries to make money because this agency will regulate interest rates so low that the few lenders left will only lend money to those with high credit scores.

PDLindustryblog discusses this weekend’s story out of Virginia.

In Saturday’s Columbus Dispatch, Ted Saunders, Checksmart CEO, said this in a guest op-ed:

Customers say that they appreciate having access to short-term loans and the flexibility those loans afford them to manage debt in a way that works best for them. Denise, a customer from Dayton, attested to this recently, saying: “I can borrow the money I need, which keeps me current on my bills, and because of [short-term loans], I have never been late on payments of bills, which also keeps my credit in good standing. We are all adults, and we know what we’re doing.”

Glenda, a customer from Columbus, added, “I use it rarely, but I appreciate the fact that it is available when I do need it for something that comes up unexpectedly.”

The industry is fighting to preserve financial choice for its customers.   The whole thing is a great read.

A new Consumer FinancialProtection Agency would just be a tool of anti-business consumer groups. How do we know?  From the article:

A coalition of national consumer protection agencies this week applauded President Barack Obama’s proposal to create a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency, saying it would consolidate most federal consumer protection efforts into a single agency. Currently, seven federal agencies handle consumer protection in financial services, and five of those also oversee the financial soundness of specific financial institutions.

“Too often, captive federal banking regulators have treated consumer protection as less important or even in conflict with their supposed primary mission to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of U.S. PIRG, in a written statement. “The president’s proposal would streamline and dramatically improve the current splintered, ineffective federal financial regulatory system.”

The discredited activist group will no longer be known as ACORN.  They are using this symbol ~~ from now on.   We’re kidding!   From the article:

Wade Rathke, who founded the organization, announced on his blog that ACORN International has officially changed its name to “Community Organizations International.”

Yea, that should end their problems.

From a new report that can be found at here: (the link will take you to state facts sheets as well.)

Key Findings:

• In addition to being a valuable source of credit for many consumers, the payday loan industry makes significant contributions to U.S. and state economies.
• The industry contributed over $10 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007.
• The payday lending industry supports over 155,000 jobs nationally¹, including 77,088 people directly employed in 23,586 jobs in storefront locations.²
• Overall, the total labor income impact from the payday loan industry is $6.4 billion:
  • Through direct employment, payday loan stores contributed $2.9 billion in labor income, which translated to approximately $37,689 per store employee.³
  • Suppliers to the payday lending industry contributed $1.4 billion in labor income as an indirect result of the revenues generated by the payday loan industry.
  • $2.1 billion was generated from the wages of payday loan store employees and supplier indutries’ employees as they were spent in local economies.
• The payday lending industry helped to generate over $2.6 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2007.