How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort -- and Cashed In

[Tactical Peek]

At the Trump Doral outside Miami, payday lenders celebrated the potential death of a rule intended to protect their customers. They couldn’t have done it without President Donald Trump and his latest deregulator, Kathleen Kraninger.

by Anjali Tsui, ProPublica, and Alice Wilder, WNYC June 5, 4 a.m. EDT

In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami. Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates — typically 400% on an annual basis — that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.

The industry had felt under siege during the Obama administration, as the federal government moved to clamp down. A government study found that a majority of payday loans are made to people who pay more in interest and fees than they initially borrow. Google and Facebook refuse to take the industry’s ads.

On the edge of the Doral’s grounds, as the payday convention began, a group of ministers held a protest “pray-in,” denouncing the lenders for having a “feast” while their borrowers “suffer and starve.”

But inside the hotel, in a wood-paneled bar under golden chandeliers, the mood was celebratory. Payday lenders, many dressed in golf shirts and khakis, enjoyed an open bar and mingled over bites of steak and coconut shrimp.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-payday-lenders-spent-1-million-at-a-trump-resort-and-cashed-in


Grrrrrrrrrrr.

[rampartc]

1. quid pro quo

[mr_lebowski]

2. Scumbags ...

IMHO, the government, both federal and state, should run programs like what these payday lenders do, but charging reasonable interest rates that are much less likely to entrap people like these bastards do.

It's such a dirtbag industry ... but still a needed service, unfortunately.

[badhair77]

3. These are vile and disgusting "businessmen."

[Delmette2.0]

4. I just listened to a podcast about this.

The podcast is Trump Inc. The episode is Payday at the Trump Doral.