Local governments who restrict legal businesses through zoning confuses The Pundit. This time a village in Michigan is trying to stop its citizens from using short-term credit services.

Zoning board officials said they do not want such businesses to become too prominent, and would like to see more variety in the types of companies in the village.

The Missouri House of Representatives will likely vote this week on restrictions for short-term lending, according to this newspaper article. There are some in the state that still want to ban payday lending, but this bill sponsor says that’s not the aim of this legislation.

Bill sponsor Rep. Ellen Brandom, R-Sikeston, said the bill would help curb abuses without putting the industry out of business.

A group in Mississippi made a few errant remarks regarding payday lending in an op-ed, but the main focus of the article is promoting financial education. The Pundit sees that as a noble goal.

The Foundation for the Mid South believes that financial education is essential. Every resident should have a basic understanding of financial concepts and what it takes to live within their means.

As you know, The Center for Responsible Lending has a spotty record when it comes to presenting research.  A business writer at  The Atlantic questions the group’s latest nonsense, that it will take people 14 years to save for a mortgage downpayment.

It’s funny.  Payday loans are completely transparent but when banks do it, it’s news.

Lets all hope the Strickland does not get the job to head the bureau. Not only did he sign the state rate cap law he pushed hard to get it passed.

Bloomberg News thinks so.  From the story: 

Elizabeth Warren is the architect behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency created to police many financial products, including mortgages, and a centerpiece of the Administration’s reform efforts. Opposition from Wall Street, Republicans, and some moderate Democrats prevented the Harvard law professor and longtime critic of the banking sector from being nominated to head the bureau after its creation last year. Instead, President Barack Obama appointed Warren as a special adviser in September and asked her to prepare the bureau for its July 21 launch. The move was seen by her supporters as a chance for Warren to placate her critics and clear the way for an eventual nomination.

Six months later, there’s little evidence Warren has succeeded. Opposition from Wall Street banks and Republicans has only intensified after her involvement in proposing a $20 billion fine on the mortgage industry. While she’s won the support of many small community banks, Warren has converted no new allies in the Senate, leaving her short of the 60 votes needed for confirmation. Before retiring in January, Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), co-author of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform bill that created the consumer agency, urged Obama to put somebody else in the job—a vote of no confidence that helps explain rumors that Warren is considering alternative paths, including a run for the Senate. Representatives for Warren declined to comment.

Goes to Bruce Watson, AOL Daily Finance hack who use old data and ignores that fact that payday lender do not make traditional two-week, short-term loans to military, hasn’t happened since the 2006 law.   Bruce, check the calendar, it’s 2011.  Why are you writing a story that was more relevant five years ago?

The Huffington Post is starting to annoy me.

Other things you can’t get in DC: a decent government sponsored education even for $25,000 student/year; affordable housing, a right to protect yourself, or freedom to walk the streets after dark.