Bloodsuckers Inc.

BAD NEWS on the financial regulation front: This time it’s not a regulation that’s being applied, but being undone. The papers say the restraints on payday lenders might become a thing of the past.

The Trump administration has been praised in some quarters, including these, for relaxing regulations on business. But there is a degree to these things. Payday lenders take advantage of the poor, getting around state usury laws by charging all kinds of rake-offs— excuse us, fees—for things like signatures and even recording documents. What, the poor suckers won’t be charged for walking in the door? None of this is interest, mind you. That’d be illegal. It’s not just the most desperate among us getting the runaround, but the English language.

These lenders, legal in 33 states and getting into others (like this one) through the Internet, were supposed to meet certain requirements to make sure they were filling a need and not hooking a fish. The cornerstone of requirements was that these lenders make sure borrowers could afford to repay the loans without being stuck in a cycle of debt. That requirement is disappearing.

But of course. The lenders have the ears of the administration. Especially when they book time in the president’s hotels. And what’s the point of being in the payday loan business if you can’t get your clients stuck in the cycle of debt? That’s the surest way to not only give them a loan on their next paycheck, but on the next paycheck and the next. Maybe the next dozen. Or more. They call that a “rollover,” and it’s about as good for you as any other accident.

What’s needed every time some poor sucker gets caught in this web is a reminder of the political bigwigs who make such perfectly legal rackets possible. And a reminder of who elects them and approves such scams: We the People.

Rackets should be illegal. At the very least, they should be regulated so they cause minimal harm.

You can almost see the sharks circling. This won’t prove easy when they move in for the kill.