Dragged Down by Debt

Pass the Predatory Lending Legislation and stop debating issue while people go broke. Loan sharks have been around for years, and they just got more sophisticated over time. Get rid of them!

The "loan sharks" allowed to prey on the already poor with the blessing of "our government are little more than thieves. We must have legislation to protect Americans from these leaches.. We need this NOW. There is little recourse for the working poor of this country. We nave NO representation from our leaders in government !!!

There is no reason in the world for government to attempt to dictate peoples' financial options to them. The ludicrous proposals for rate capping practically amount to a ban, promoted with emotional smokescreens and twisted statistics. People have the right to choose what's good for them, and the best thing to do is to educate them with the right information to make the best choices possible.

To: Editor, Newsweek
From: Michael H. Lane and Ward R. Scull, lll
In Re: "Dragged Down by Debt", Newsweek, ???? 2008
Date: July 3, 2008

Thank you Newsweek and Jane Bryant Quinn for your article, "Dragged Down by Debt, People with shaky credit are getting suckered by risky loans against their paychecks, homes-and even cars." Payday, car title, and other predatory lenders know, as former House Speaker Tip O'Neil once observed that 'all politics is local." They also know that "money talks." The result of these two observations is that although it is clear that payday lending is usury, legislators at the local level listen to payday and other predatory lenders who fill their coffers until they are overflowing even as it comes at the expense of constituents.

Unfortunately, our state, Virginia, is the setting for too many of the examples in Ms. Quinn's article citing the practices of predatory lenders. Well intentioned efforts by Virginia legislators over the years to reform payday lending and to once again outlaw usury in Virginia and many other states have ended in the same result, i.e., no action at all or sham reforms promoted by the predatory lending industry.

Federal action such as that taken by the US Congress to impose a 36% interest cap on payday loans to military personnel is needed to protect all citizens of the US against a rich and powerful loan sharking industry.

Michael H. Lane

Ward R. Scull, lll
Virginians Against Payday Loans (VAPL)
Co Founders
(O)757.244.4975; (M)757. 880.7926
www.stoppaydayloans.org