Payday lenders up their contributions to candidates

[douglas9]

The payday loan industry is spending big on politics in advance of expected scrutiny from the federal government’s new financial watchdog agency.

After lobbying heavily before the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill became law in 2010, the top payday lenders did not slack off last year, and the companies have become a bigger source of campaign contributions for political candidates this election cycle, according to a report from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Payday lenders are used by people who need a short-term loan between paychecks. The loans, typically as small as a few hundred dollars and only lasting two weeks, have fees that are equivalent to annual interest rates of several hundred percent. People taking out the loan typically provide a personal check that can be cashed once the loan is due.

The industry, besieged by bad publicity, has made a dramatic increase in its investment in the influence game in recent years. Eleven big lenders and the two trade associations representing the industry have increased their spending on lobbying from $730,000 in 2005 to $4.5 million in 2011, according to CREW’s report.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/payday-lenders-up-their-contributions-to-candidates/2012/04/18/gIQAziioRT_print.html

[hifiguy]

1. Semantics are fascinating.

When the Mob does what "payday lenders" do, it is called loan-sharking and prosecuted. When you incorporate as a "business" and do the same thing, it is called "free enterprise" and they are allowed to purchase politicians. These fuckers all belong behind bars for loan-sharking. At least the Mob is honest about what it is doing.