Read me >>> sharing illuminating journalism

[guido]

See How the World’s Most Polluted Air Compares With Your City’s - The New York Times

[Too Tall]

Some d@mn incitefull reads, thanks V.
That Outside Mag. article caused my heart to skip a few beats. At the same time they were bicycling thru the region of the murder, two friends who also lived in DC Metro, were engaged in a near round-the-world ride.
“Thanks for exiting this world and not reproducing your stupid fucking idiocy,” <<< Viewpoints such as this underscore the plight of unaccomplished lives. I say this having come from such a place. Accomplishments change you forever, they change your perspective of others and most importantly yourself. Tolerance is not a born instinct, it is earned and that's all I gotts to say about that.

Keep posting links V.

[Scott G.]

191125_a23188.jpg

The New Yorker, (who else ?)

[ides1056]

Opinion | The Church Forests of Ethiopia - The New York Times

[vertical_doug]

They Loan You Money. Then They Get A Warrant For Your Arrest. — ProPublica

propublica does good work.
nice follow to civil forfeiture and confessions of judgement

[url=https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-confessions-of-judgment/]

[guido]

They Loan You Money. Then They Get A Warrant For Your Arrest. — ProPublica

propublica does good work.
nice follow to civil forfeiture and confessions of judgement

[url=https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-confessions-of-judgment/]

Usury should be the crime here. The angry tip of the inflamed boil of the financial industry in 2019... Just what the CFPB was intended to protect us from. Until Trump gutted it...

[mnoble485]

One of the many jobs I had during college was as a collector for a small loan co. Small as in $600.00 or less not in office size. This was in Bowling Green, Ky. in the early 70's.
The APR was 33%. Calling people who could not pay and should never been given a loan in the first place was tough. Going out and finding people in the country was comical. I was a softie and constantly let people break their promises. Needless to say, that job didn't last long but I still tell funny stories of events.

Mike

[bigbill]

Usury would drive me nuts in the military. One of my guys got a payday loan to fix his car, borrowed $550, had to pay back over $1000. Navy Relief will give a $600 loan that the sailor pays back at $50 a month for 12 months. Borrow 600, pay 600 back. A bunch of predators.

The other predatory method is income tax preparation for low income or elderly. I'd volunteer at United Way preparing taxes for VITA. We'd prepare, review, and electronically file returns for free. The person would get all of their refund. The places like Jackson-Hewitt, H&R Block, and Liberty would charge $200+ for a person making $20K a year. It was pure and simple predation.

[HorsCat]

Until Trump gutted it...

Things in life that are immutable: death; taxes; ETTTTS*.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...es-missed.html

* Everything Trump touches turns to shit

[Dallas Tex]

Usury should be the crime here. The angry tip of the inflamed boil of the financial industry in 2019... Just what the CFPB was intended to protect us from. Until Trump gutted it...

Trump has been president for 2 years, 10 months. This industry was thriving under past administrations. The predatory lending industry has been thriving for decades, as have the practices described in the article link. Why all the anger now?

Maybe the CFPB is being neutered because it was failing at its mission?

[HorsCat]

Maybe the CFPB is being neutered because it was failing at its mission?

Or, perhaps it was neutered because it was succeeding at its mission:

"From its creation until 2017, the CFPB "has curtailed abusive debt collection practices, reformed mortgage lending, publicized and investigated hundreds of thousands of complaints from aggrieved customers of financial institutions, and extracted nearly $12 billion for 29 million consumers in refunds and canceled debts."[45]"

See: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - Wikipedia

See also: Republicans Want to Sideline This Regulator. But It May Be Too Popular. - The New York Times

[Dallas Tex]

Maybe not:

"From its creation until 2017, the CFPB "has curtailed abusive debt collection practices, reformed mortgage lending, publicized and investigated hundreds of thousands of complaints from aggrieved customers of financial institutions, and extracted nearly $12 billion for 29 million consumers in refunds and canceled debts."[45]"

See: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - Wikipedia

See also: Republicans Want to Sideline This Regulator. But It May Be Too Popular. - The New York Times

Yet stood by silently as public universities have duped millions of teenage college students out of billions in debt? And apparently the CFPB has not succeeded in addressing the predatory lending industry's abuse of the legal system. I'm definitely not impressed.

[woodworker]

Yet stood by silently as public universities have duped millions of teenage college students out of billions in debt? And apparently the CFPB has not succeeded in addressing the predatory lending industry's abuse of the legal system. I'm definitely not impressed.

Nothing like an argument against a government agency that addresses some problems but fails to address all of them. I wish that they were better at this ...so I guess we'll just shut them down. That's an argument against all government agencies, as they are rarely as efficient as they should be.

However, unless you tore out the chapter on externalities in your economics textbook, you should realize that the profit motive means that private companies will not care about abusive problems or damage to third parties that are a byproduct of their businesses. That's why you have government agencies.

Yes, the positive side of Adam Smith's invisible hand is that it does the best job of guiding resources in a capitalist society. The downside is that it has delirium tremens from time to time.

[HorsCat]

Yet stood by silently as public universities have duped millions of teenage college students out of billions in debt? And apparently the CFPB has not succeeded in addressing the predatory lending industry's abuse of the legal system. I'm definitely not impressed.

Yeah, ok, sure. Sorry to hear you're not impressed.

[Dallas Tex]

Nothing like an argument against a government agency that addresses some problems but fails to address all of them. I wish that they were better at this ...so I guess we'll just shut them down. That's an argument against all government agencies, as they are rarely as efficient as they should be.

However, unless you tore out the chapter on externalities in your economics textbook, you should realize that the profit motive means that private companies will not care about abusive problems or damage to third parties that are a byproduct of their businesses. That's why you have government agencies.

Yes, the positive side of Adam Smith's invisible hand is that it does the best job of guiding resources in a capitalist society. The downside is that it has delirium tremens from time to time.

With all sincerity, why is an agency needed to effect change in predatory lending practices? Why not simply make these abusive practices illegal? (And include legal 'work arounds' like places that 'rent' a victim new tires & wheels for a car at exorbitant prices but 0% interest).

And in praise of Adam's Smith's invisible hand, I've not heard of any banks recently making mortgage loans to people that have no possible hope of repaying it. Yet the government subsidizes student loans daily to kids that every party involved know could not possibly ever be paid back.

[woodworker]

With all sincerity, why is an agency needed to effect change in predatory lending practices? Why not simply make these abusive practices illegal? (And include legal 'work arounds' like places that 'rent' a victim new tires & wheels for a car at exorbitant prices but 0% interest).

And in praise of Adam's Smith's invisible hand, I've not heard of any banks recently making mortgage loans to people that have no possible hope of repaying it. Yet the government subsidizes student loans daily to kids that every party involved know could not possibly ever be paid back.

Wow, the first question would require a pretty long explanation. I'll take a quick shot at it. The executive branch is charged with administering the laws, and that's why agencies like the EPA, SEC, FDA, etc. are created. Typically, you don't throw companies in jail; rather, you use an enforcement mechanism and penalties or other devices, or you have regulations that require pre-approval by the government. Oftentimes, the exact nature of the penalties and enforcement mechanisms are not in the statutes but in regulations (CFR's), and the administrative agencies have to interpret and enforce those, which is the reason that we have bureaucracies. I worked for a while at the DOI, and they were charged, through the Office of Surface Mining, with enforcement of penalties related to mining violations. They were understaffed, and the folks who worked there were not very motivated. They were overmatched in their constant conflict with the much larger and better armed mining companies, and their lobbyists and lawyers. Nevertheless, they were tasked with addressing the externalities that Adam Smith's invisible hand couldn't, because self-interest is by definition not interested in third parties, i.e. externalities. I'm not a fan of bureaucracies, but they are the natural side effect of capitalism. I see them as a necessary evil, and I think that anyone who has studied economics and looked objectively at what companies do to maximize profits should reach that conclusion.

....so the bottom line is that they do pass laws; and, in fact, that's what prevents or responds to the issues identified. Of course, if it's a federal law that's been violated, then the attorney general responsible for that district can go after them as well. But if you have an administration that is linking arms with the companies that are the subject of regulation and enforcement, enforcement is likely to be relatively weak.

Here in California, the state has in many cases relinquished its legal enforcement role in relation to violations of state law. Thus, for example, they allow private lawyers to bring actions on behalf of essentially large classes of individuals through private attorney general (or PAGA) statutes.

As to you comment about banks not recently making mortgage loans to people that have no possible hope of repaying it, that's not an argument in favor of Smith's "invisible hand." When the hand was busy from 2005-08, they did exactly that. Then they were spanked for doing it, and Dodd-Frank was passed and is, to my understanding, in the process of being made toothless. However, lending practices were tightened, appraisers were separated from the banks, underwriting was strengthened, stress tests were instituted, etc. There may have been an element of the banks voluntarily doing it following the disastrous results that ensued in 2008, but that's only because the hand was burned so badly. Once they get done pulling the last incisors from Dodd-Frank, and the burn has been salved, the hand will be back at it.

Given its disastrous history, and the fact that the feds bailed them out (not exactly a prime example of unfettered capitalism), the banking / lending industry is just about the last place I'd go for an example buttressing Adam Smith's economic theories.

[ides1056]

‘He Showed Us Life’: Japanese Doctor Who Brought Water to Afghans Is Killed - The New York Times

[guido]

Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing World ‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change - The New York Times

[mjbabcock]

I Worked for Alex Jones. I Regret It. - The New York Times

In my mind, this should be mandatory reading for the right. Jones is at the extreme end of the spectrum, but his means are shared by Fox News and Breitbart and the rest. Fuck em.

[Dallas Tex]

Opinion | Kevin Talks Turkey - The New York Times