The Pentagon is asking Congress to do something to protect soldiers from predatory payday loans that charge sky-high interest rates. One proposal before Congress is to cap the loans to members of the military at 36%. If that sounds high, just realize that some annual interest rates for payday loans run upward to 900 percent.
AP points out:In a report released last month, the Defense Department estimated that 225,000 service members — or 17 percent of the military — use payday loans. The Center for Responsible Lending, a group advocating stricter industry controls, says that one in five service members took out such a loan in 2004, and that someone who borrows $325 pays an average of $800 in charges.
Military bases offer financial counseling and zero-interest emergency loans to service members in trouble. They also can recommend credit unions that offer low-interest loans. But some military members prefer the no-questions-asked approach of payday lenders.
Industry officials say that payday loans offer a service when no one else will. They say a mandated cap could force some military lenders to close, driving soldiers and sailors to unregulated lenders, including Internet sites registered outside the United States .
Twelve states prohibit triple-digit rates on payday loans, according to the Consumer Federation of America. They are Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia , Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia.
But there is another side to all of this. The Payday Loan Bar Association says the DoD report on payday loans was biased and one sided. Among the arguments the industry uses to counter DoD complaints:
• The DoD report determines that payday loans are “predatory” solely by uncritically adopting eight factors used by a vociferous opponent of the industry, the Center for Responsible Lending, without making an independent determination that such loans are “unfair” or “abusive” as required by the applicable statute. No other recognized authority has adopted these factors.
• According to DoD’s own internal data, fewer than 5% of service members have had a payday loan.
• Because fewer than 6% of payday loans ultimately default, at most 6% of that 5%, or 0.3%, of all service members have experienced financial difficulty with a pay-day loan. In other words, 99.7% of service members have either not had a payday loan or experience no financial difficulties with payday loans. There is simply no statistical evidence that payday loans contribute to military readiness problems to any measurable degree.
• Although some service members with financial problems have taken out payday loans, DoD has presented no data showing that payday loans cause financial problems. Payday loans are intended to solve short-term financial problems, and the overwhelming majority of users employ them in that manner.
• DoD’s data regarding asserted hardship relating to payday loans consist of a mere 12 anecdotes drawn from the experiences of 1,400,000 or more service members.
• For a sample of service members with payday loans who have experienced bankruptcy, payday loans account for less than 4% of their total liabilities, and the financial difficulties suffered by such service members manifestly relate to preexisting (i.e., non-payday-loan) factors.
• DoD’s data regarding “targeting” of service members by payday lenders are flawed because they do not control for demographics and fail to include tests of statistical significance. The “targeting” argument assumes, in defiance of logic, that the industry would commit disproportionate resources to customers who ac-count for only 1% of revenues.
In fact, the PayDay Loan industry says approved members have special protections for members of the military.
These protections and information resources for service members, which include prohibitions on garnishment and on contacting the chain of command for collection assistance, can be viewed in their entirety here.
More payday loan stories from consumeraffairs.com:
• California Sues Payday Loan Business
• North Carolina Declares Victory In War On Payday Lending
• H&R Block To Settle More Payday Loan Suits
• DOD: Payday Loans Affecting Military Readiness
• States Want FDIC Crackdown on Payday Lenders
• No Payday for Payday Lenders in Texas, New York
• Payday Lenders Prey on African-American Neighborhoods
• Payday Loan Report: Reform Needed
• Illinois Warns of Payday Loans
• Fast Cash Loans Charged with Illegal Practices
• Cashback Payday Loans Banned in NY
Horseback Riding Machines
It is the latest thing in exercise equipment and it is showing up in electronic gadget stores. Think of it as a cross between an exercise bike and a mechanical bull like they had on Urban Cowboy. It is mechanical horseback riding fitness equipment and they are all the rage in
Japan. The Joba, the Japanese word for horseback riding, is manufactured by Matsushita, and sells for $700. Its popularity has grown so much, there is a 3-week backorder wait for the saddle, complete with stirrups.
The machine pitches and rolls in a figure-eight pattern, gently exercising the thighs and abdominal muscles required for balance, The Wall Street Journal reports. Users can set their own speed on a one-to-nine scale.
Studies done by Matsushita show a Joba session burns about 50 calories in 15 minutes, but the company said that's good for rehabilitation or for the elderly to exercise gently.
Recently, the Joba made its U.S. debut on the Panasonic Web site and through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. It is bigger than its Japanese counterpart, and costs $2,000, the Journal said.
Gizmag.com reports:
The benefits are clear as it helps stimulate seldom used muscles in the dorsal and abdominal regions. Tests in Japan have shown that "riders" begin burning far more calories after just three months using the machine. Compared to walking or swimming, the riding machine causes less physical stress to knees and other parts of the lower body.
Perfectly designed for those who are disinclined to doing strenuous physical exercise (or dare we say it: those who are lazy), the designers of the Joba actually started the project with a different purpose in mind.
Fighting Flat Roofed Houses
Style conscious cities and towns across the country are fighting the newest thing in home construction-houses with flat roofs. From an owner’s perspective, flat roofed houses make a lot of sense because you can live in just about every foot of the home without the wasted pitched roof area, like I have in my house. It is not even a good attic.
But neighbors complain the roofs are unattractive and flat roofs have a habit of attracting roof parties.
The Wall Street Journal has the story.
Communities everywhere from Delaware to Washington are addressing roof pitch. The waterfront town of Bethany Beach, Del., several months ago passed a minimum-roof-pitch requirement after a spate of new, box-like homes dwarfed the town's older cottages. St. Augustine, Fla., last fall banned flat roofs for homes on some smaller lots over concerns about style and rooftop parties, and the city of Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle, is holding a series of community meetings with homeowners and developers on house-to-lot ratios, which address, in part, concerns about the increase in flat-roofed homes.
Many popular home styles, of course, such as Prairie and Pueblo, have flat or low-pitched roofs. And in some parts of the country, such as Santa Fe, N.M., some ordinances even aim to keep roofs flat. Still, in many suburban American communities, the majority of homes have sloping roofs. But now, some Realtors, builders and local officials say, flat tops are increasingly infiltrating neighborhoods that traditionally featured sloping-roofed cottages and bungalows.
The trend is being driven in part by people seeking the best return on their investment amid soaring property values in recent years. It also demonstrates how zoning restrictions communities passed in recent years have backfired. In response to runaway development, many municipalities tried to prevent oversized homes on small lots. But in some cases, the unintended result was flat-roofed, boxy homes seen as out of character with surrounding styles. By using a flat roof, builders can sometimes squeeze in a second or third floor, adding square footage while staying under neighborhood height restrictions.
Hottest Summer in 70 Years
Yes, it was THAT hot this summer. USA Today reports:
The USA sweated this year through its hottest summer in 70 years, with temperatures not seen since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, according to a government report.
From June 1 to Aug. 31, as summer is defined by the National Climatic Data Center, the continental USA had an average temperature of 74.5 degrees, based on readings from hundreds of weather stations nationwide. It was the second-hottest summer temperature the government has recorded since it started keeping track in 1895. The only one warmer — by about two-tenths of a degree — was in 1936.
Nevada had its hottest recorded summer, the report said. Nationwide, the first eight months of 2006 were the warmest January-to-August period on record.
County by County Life Expectancy
Al’s Morning Meeting reader Matt Phillips, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Online points us toward this website which lists life expectancy by COUNTY. Cool.
AP reports:
Asian-American women living in Bergen County, N.J., lead the nation in longevity, typically reaching their 91st birthdays. Worst off are American Indian men in swaths of South Dakota, who die around age 58 — three decades sooner.
Where you live, combined with race and income, plays a huge role in the nation's health disparities, differences so stark that a report issued Monday contends it's as if there are eight separate Americas instead of one.
Millions of the worst-off Americans have life expectancies typical of developing countries, concluded Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health.
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It saddens me that the government is finally recognizing predatory...
