Cleveland’s WTAM Bob Franz on payday lending
May 2, 2008 | Ohio, WTAM, industry, media coverage, positive media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)Hour 2 features a lively intervew with Ohio’s Speaker of the House John Husted, a republican in support of banning payday lending. Bob Franz has done his research, understands the industry and the product and does a great job asking the tough questions. Husted admits that the 28% APR cap will close the industry down. Quoting Franz, “With republicans like that, who needs democrats?”
Hour 3 includes more commentary on the payday lending debate with Jamie Frauenberg, president of the Ohio payday lending trade association.
Left leaning blog presents the other side of the story in Ohio
April 11, 2008 | Ohio, positive media coverage, states | Comments (0)Democrat Jeff Coryell provides some truly substantive discussion on a side of the payday loan issue which isn’t being covered by Ohio media.
Joyce Beatty represents a district with severely underserved neighborhoods where both banking services and employment opportunities are scarce. (My own state representative, Barbara Boyd (D-Cleveland Heights), represents such areas in East Cleveland, and she has spoken to this issue as well.) The fact is that payday lending outfits, despite their potential for abuse and their unpalatable business model, do provide some form of banking services that are accessible to people living in neighborhoods without commercial bank branches. Sometimes people do need small, temporary loans, and as a practical matter they currently have nowhere else to turn. Payday lenders also provide some jobs, and they pay rent and buy office supplies. In struggling urban areas where local commercial establishments like bars and restaurants have been dealt a double blow by the smoking ban and the elimination of the popular video games, the threat of potentially crippling another form of commercial activity is to be taken very seriously.
