Swift Boating Subprime Lender into Being Honest (Pt. 3)

John Kerry’s heart bleeds for the CRL

Starkman goes on to attack and defend in forgettable style. Click here if you missed parts one or two.

• “Now the Swift Boat-style campaigns against borrowers and their advocates have begun; business journalists just need to be on guard.”

Last I checked, Forbes has a distinguished history of business journalism under it’s belt. Perhaps they also have better sense than to use a political hot-button topic; it comes across as very manipulative, Dean.

But the Burger King might need them…

• “90 percent of payday loans are rolled over, most of them more than five times. Why? Because someone who need a 400 percent loan is probably too strapped to pay it back… if 400-percent loans are so popular, why doesn’t Steve Forbes have one?”

Studies have shown that most payday loan customers earn very livable annual wages, and hence aren’t “too strapped” to pay them back on time. And 90 percent are rolled over and not paid back on time? Where does that data come from? The Center For Responsible Lending? You don’t say?

Regarding the Steve Forbes quip, that’s ridiculous. We all know why Mr. Forbes doesn’t need them. Neither do Tiger Woods, Bill Gates or Ronald McDonald, for that matter.

Those economists! They know nothing of finance!

• Regarding Donald Morgan and Michael Strain’s Federal Reserve research paper “Payday Holiday,” Starkman dismisses the paper as “an academic work that relies on assumptions that only an economist would make.”

What’s the problem now, Mr. Starkman? An academic paper involves meticulous research. Furthermore, wouldn’t the ideas of  expert economists like Morgan and Strain be pertinent to the financial issues America faces. They make it very clear that payday loans are not responsible for the problem. In fact, they show that the battle against payday loans that has been run largely by the Center For Responsible Lending has harmed consumers. Click here to go on to part four and see how Starkman concludes his attempt at journalistic impartiality. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Swift Boating Subprime Lender into Being Honest (Pt. 3)"