One unkind post about an “alternative” newspaper and you get stuff like this.   As a lover of free speech, the Payday Pundit is happy to give time to his critics.

From Bloomberg:

Madison said the consumer bureau probably would start by focusing on consumer banking products before adding in oversight of payday lenders and other financial firms not traditionally monitored by bank regulators.

Spelled out yesterday by a Treasury official.  From the WSJ Washington Wire:

On Thursday, a key Treasury official said that Ms. Warren and her fledgling bureau have quite a bit of authority – including the ability to start the rule-writing process. The bureau can engage undertake studies, solicit feedback from the public “and I think even putting out proposals,” Treasury’s General Counsel George Madison said at a luncheon.

keep up the good work, the truth hurts

This is about the third time this year the Dallas Morning News has referred to payday lending customers as “unbanked.”

Despite a bevy of columnists at The Huffington Post that criticize our industry, the site itself takes advertisements from online lenders.   In fact, the Payday Pundit just saw an advertisement from “SpeedyLoans” on the site’s home page.  (It may not be there now as the site rotates ads on and off its home page.)  

Good for The Huffington Post!   Ad revenue is what keeps news sites alive and gives all these columnists an opportunity to voice their opinion.    A politician I used to work for once told me, “capitalism funds freedom.”

If I have to close my stores, lay-off my employees, file bankruptcy and can no longer help my customers, will there be anyone other than those in my industry to be their to lend me support? No, because the the ones with a voice against the industry have never taken the time to learn about the process or the people that provide and use the service. They just feel the need to protect everyone and make them conform to thier idealistic and in many cases, unrealistic way of living for the common citizen.

Yesterday’s post about The Washington Independent folding spiked blog traffic by about 1,000 individual page views.   People are upset about the “dancing on the grave” comment.

I find this extremely hypocritical.  This industry has been the subject of vicious, factually incorrect reporting that has led to thousands of payday loan workers losing their jobs.  I posted just Monday about Montana stores closing, workers losing their jobs.

One thing about reporters I’ve learned in 25 years of public relations, they can dish it out but they sure can’t take it.  Every single time I’ve called out a reporter on this blog for factual errors in their stories, they’ve called me to whine.  Every time I’ve accused a columnist of having an anti-business bias, they’ve gone ballistic.   But they throw around words like “loan shark” and “parasites” pretty easily.  They are the thinnest skinned people around.

Rolling Stone writer Matt Tiabbi unleashes on Wall Street in his new book.  Calls Goldman-Sachs “vampire squids.”   I don’t get it.  Guess I’ll have to read the book.

From The American Banker (subscription service so I didn’t link to it):

Rep. Melissa Bean, a key moderate on the House Financial Services Committee, refuted rumors she is a candidate to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…