Payday lending, an industry that brings in some $7 billion a year in fees nationwide The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said testimony from the session in Birmingham would help guide the development of future regulations. Recently appointed Director Richard Cordray said the bureau recognizes the need for short-term loans, but the lending needs to help consumers, not harm them. “Before this month, the federal government did not examine payday lenders,” Cordray said. “Some state regulators have been examining payday lenders for compliance with their state laws. We hope to use our combined resources as effectively as possible.” Huge number of lenders Officials said that about 19 million American households now have payday loans. With interest rates often in the teens and easy application procedures, lenders said they generate business through radio and television advertising, plus word-of-mouth and by locating offices in areas where other small-loan lenders are located. Read more…
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Marketplace Fairness Act 2011 in the Senate Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others, have scooted their bipartisan version of the Marketplace Equity Act (H.R. 3179), in the Senate and dubbed it the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832). With the states and Amazon crying out for a Federal solution, and organizations crying “foul, new tax,” cosponsors Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) presented their view as revealed in the National Review Online earlier today: “Some — mostly taxpayers and out-of-state businesses who enjoy being subsidized by the loophole — argue that we would create a new ‘Internet tax.’ This is wrong. We are talking about an existing state tax that purchasers already owe. And it is a tax on all sales, not only Internet ones.” The next argument addressed was that of the uncommon burden this type of bill would place on small businesses that use the Internet to sell products. In response to Read more…
Despite remaining relatively stable in recent weeks, economic confidence is way down from a year ago, said a recent report from Gallup.
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index showed modest improvement up to -49 during the week ending October 9, up from -50 the previous week.
According to Gallup, its Economic Confidence Index hit is down a whopping 29 points this year. The high point occurred in January (-21) and the low occurred in early October (-50). This “underscores just how negative the average American’s mindset has turned in a short time,” the Gallup report stated.
During the week ending October 9, three-quarters of Americans said the U.S. economy is “getting worse,” while 53 percent of Americans termed current economic conditions as “poor.”
In that same time frame, only one of eleven Americans rated current economic conditions as excellent or good. This figure is relatively consistent with results from previous weeks. Along the same
There is a new offer from Discover More Card for first time customers, and the benefits of this mean that this is one credit card that deserves its name.
This card comes with incentives such as a bonus rewards giving cash back to customers who use the shopping portal of the company. But the benefits do not stop there, this is one card that really does offer more.
For new customers who manage to spend at least $1000 on their card in the opening three months, they can expect to earn $150 from the Discover More Cards cash back reward scheme. That equates to very profitable 15% cash back. The sign up bonus the card pays is at a much lower threshold than the promotional offers of many other cards.
Plus, the opening $3000 worth of purchases will earn a 0.25 percent rate of cash back.
Now that New Year’s resolutions have been made and holiday credit card bills have started to arrive, many consumers will be searching for ways to save money in 2012. Taking advantage of 0% balance transfer credit card offers is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get a handle on credit card debt and prevent interest charges from piling up.
Fortunately, credit card companies are eager for new card-holders and many have rolled out special balance transfer offers this January. These offers range from short term, no fee balance transfer promotions lasting 12 months to long, low fee offers lasting up to 21 months.
January is a rare month in the balance transfer universe, as consumers are faced with two types of very good balance transfer options. The first option is the no fee balance transfer. Both Discover and Chase are offering fee free transfers that can save consumers 3% of every dollar transferred ($30 for every $1,000 transferred). H
– The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher open on Thursday, with sentiment getting a lift from the results of the Italian and Spanish bond auctions, which produced encouraging results. That said, domestic data released earlier in the day was not in line with buoyant indicators received in recent times, although they were not overly negative either. Despite remaining below the 400,000 level, jobless claims rose by more than expected in the recent reporting week, while retail sales growth was softer than expectations.
European debt worries and apprehensions about some first-tier data and events scheduled to be released over Thursday and Friday weighed on the markets, resulting in a mixed close on Wednesday. The Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 Index languished below the unchanged line for much of the session before closing on a mixed note. The Dow fell 13.02 points or 0.10 percent before closing at 12,450 but the S&P 500 Index closed up 0.40 points or 0.03 percent at 1,293.