New study shows payday lending hurts economy, jobs

payday loan

Not only is payday lending a predatory industry, new evidence shows it is hurting our state economy. A March 2013 study by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development finds the burden of repaying payday loans in 2011 led to $774 million in lost consumer spending and  resulted in the loss of more than 14,000 […]

We Decide How to Share Gains

Figure 1. If wages had stayed coupled to productivity, worker income would be double what it is, now.

Last summer, a respected policy expert from the Brookings Institution spoke at a large meeting. He introduced himself, saying that he works with a lot of brilliant economists who can’t understand why the recovery is so slow. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman has an explanation, ”…corporations use their growing monopoly power to raise prices without passing the […]

Why are corporations hoarding so much cash?

fed research cash holdings

In a recent policy paper, researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis examined how much cash corporations were sitting on, and why. They found big companies are piling up record amounts of cash – essentially taking money out of circulation. So why is this a problem? Well, when corporations pile up large amounts of […]

Big banks get their slice of the payday loan pie, too

wells fargo

While they haven’t been at the forefront of the predatory payday lending industry, big banks are trying to get a slice of the short-term, high-interest pie, too. Because payday lending is most often utilized by people living paycheck to paycheck, it can easily lead to a lifetime of debt for those forced to  borrow at high […]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 789 other followers