It never stops
March 13, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (1)I’m talking about the bad journalism at the New York Times. From yesterday’s editorial about financial reform:
Lenders adamantly oppose a new agency, in part because their dodgiest offerings — like subprime mortgages of yesteryear or short-term “payday loans” — are often their most profitable.
The New York Times and the other media continually recite this canard that payday loans are very profitable. As we’ve said before, the filings of the public companies demonstrate that the industry makes average returns.
Comments»
It shouldn’t even matter how profitable the industry is. This is supposed to be a free country, where you can put an unusually large french fry up for sale on eBay for any price that you want and it is not your responsibility if someone buys it and then has financial problems – as long as your offering was honest.
It is the Times that is being dishonest, not only in pandering to the popular misconception that APR equals ROI (they should know better), but in using vague terms for the types of practices which they feel the CFPA should “police.” It is an infringement of freedom to pass a law against, or charge an agency with correcting, “unfair, abusive and otherwise unsound lending” because the definition of those terms is highly subjective.
How would they like it if the government were to pass a law against “unfair, abusive and otherwise unsound editorializing”?