topic Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history in Credit in the News

Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:51:12 GMT

As Liz Warren correctly noted, most of Citibank's defaults aren't in South Dakota, but all the Citibank jobs from the usury law change are in South Dakota.

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/NEWS/708130308/1001

PIERRE - State lawmakers with a collective free-market philosophy drove legislation that eliminated South Dakota's usury law, helping to lure credit card powerhouse Citibank to Sioux Falls and making the state a major player in the banking industry.

Message Edited by Noah_Bodie on 08-23-2007 02:51 PM

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:28:49 GMT

I always thought usury was an "arm" and a "leg".

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:36:20 GMT

ilovepizza wrote:
I always thought usury was an "arm" and a "leg".

Originally, it prevented lenders from charging that.

Today they are merely limited to charging that.

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:10:30 GMT

I am generally opposed to usury laws. Interest is merely the price of using someone else's money. Interest caps amount to price controls, which rarely work and often backfire. Price caps discourage legitimate suppliers of a commodity from bringing it to market, and thereby tacitly encourage illegal suppliers (i.e., underworld types who really do break arms and legs for nonpayment).

I am wholly in favor of truth-in-lending laws, however...if a payday loan place is going to change 2000% interest, they need to state that clearly, up-front, in no uncertain terms.

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:26:38 GMT

Usury laws existed from before the founding of the republic, the founders of our nation appear to have been very supportive of usury laws, and usury laws served the nation well for the first 202 years.

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:46:26 GMT

so now we can blame the Supreme Court for the national credit card debt, but for them, I don't think CCCs wouldn't have the Monsters they are today if they could only do business in two states

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:49:17 GMT

rbbyrbsn wrote:
so now we can blame the Supreme Court for the national credit card debt, but for them, I don't think CCCs wouldn't have the Monsters they are today if they could only do business in two states

There is blame to go around, but when home prices and other fixed expenses (like healthcare) have risen significantly and incomes have not kept pace, I would note well duh that CC debt is up.

Re: Slight shift in [usury] law changed trajectory of state's history

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:27:54 GMT

If you look at the numbers, the U.S. standard of living (measured in terms of the hours of labor the average worker has to labor in order to obtain housing, health care, food, and transportation) peaked in the early 1970s. The U.S. economy has been going downhill ever since, at least in real terms.

Up until fairly recently, the decline was masked by politicians and executives. But the overall power of an empire is represented by a bell-shaped curve, and after the asset bubble of the late '90s, we rounded the crest of the curve (where decline is relatively slow) and fell onto the right shoulder, which is steeper.

Now the only way to maintain the illusion that Americans as a whole are getting richer is to go from one source of fiat (fake) money to another...from one asset bubble to another. We went from the stock market itself to dot-coms to real estate, like a junkie going from one drug to another, trying to shovel in virtual, pixellated cash to cover the growing trough.

But that game is just about up now.