Mark Winston Griffith

Opportunities to Organize against the High Cost, Predatory Credit System

The crusade against high cost credit and predatory lending is building steam.

On Wednesday, in Buffalo, the Assembly committees on Consumer Affairs and Protection, and Banking held hearings to examine how low-income people are abused by a range of high cost, predatory credit practices. According to Kirsten Keefe, of the Empire Justice Center, the hearings were inspired by a 4 part series called "The High Cost of Being Poor" which "highlighted problems in the mortgage lending, rent-to-own, check-chashing, tax prep and RAL's and related industries that cater to, and rip off lower income people." A second hearing has been scheduled for New York City in October.

Meanwhile two film makers have simultaneously produced documentary films that detail how the credit industry is sucking the financial life out of lower and middle class Americans. On October 21st the Museum of Television and Radio is premiering the movie "Maxed Out". In describing "Maxed Out" the Museum writes "James Scurlock's alternately hilarious and harrowing film exposes the tactics by which the credit card industry not only encourages debt but profits from it, and uses eye opening interviews and staggering statistics to illustrate the debilitating consequences of a nation addicted to 'charging it.' "

Today, Friday, U.S. Congressman Bernard Sanders is sponsoring a special "sneak peek" screening of a documentary by Danny Schechter entitled "In Debt We Trust" at the Rayburn House Office Building. According to a promotional notice for the event, " 'In Debt We Trust' addresses the consolidation of the credit card industry, aggressive marketing of credit cards on college campuses, the rise of high cost loans to the financially distressed, bankruptcy reform, the rise of predatory 'pay day' loans to military personnel, mortgage scams, and interviews of average Americans who lost out on the 'American Dream' to unscrupulous lenders."

Sanders is using the opportunity to focus attenction on his bill, H.R. 1619, the Loan Shark Prevention Act, which the same promotional notice says would "require a reasonable cap on interest rates and bank fees and prohibit the bait and switch tactics of the credit card industry."

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Posted at 9:01 AM, Sep 22, 2006 in
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