Here, at the Poverty Law Center. Here’s an excerpt (footnote omitted):
* * * I am increasingly worried about where we are headed today. After decades of more and more and more lending, the American people now have a significant debt burden. Yet there is no shortage of venture capital, private equity, and other pools of money swirling around, looking for more ways to profit. And a new generation of entrepreneurs has devised an endless list of creative but often harmful ways to squeeze more out of people who all too often don’t have much to give. Although some of these products involve new technologies, it’s often the case that the underlying financial service isn’t really new – it’s a shiny veneer on top of an age-old practice. Even worse, these companies often try to engage in regulatory arbitrage – their real innovation is not that their product is so groundbreaking, but that they pretend that consumer protection laws don’t apply to them. As always, the people most likely to be harmed are those who are most vulnerable.
