Free Republic

Poway Unified to Pay Nearly 10 Times What it Borrowed: Report District will begin financing the 40-year loan beginning in 2050 New school, new library, new technology – just a few examples of the renovations and repairs made to Poway Unified School District’s 24 aging schools starting in 2001 under Proposition U. To finish the job, Poway taxpayers passed Proposition C in 2008. Last year, as part of that bond, the district borrowed $105 million. It won’t begin paying it back until 20 years from now. With interest, that $105 million loan will end up costing taxpayers almost $1 billion...

Thursday, July 15, 2010 China's Shark Loan Ponzi Finance- Fitch Reports That the Size the "Trust Fund" Credit Growth is 28% of the Total Market Credit Growth A new report came out of Fitch Yesterday, stating that Informal Securitization is increasingly distorting credit Data, and has been under representing the actual amount of new loans in the first half of 2010: "Adjusted for informal securitization activity, Fitch estimates that the net amount of new CNY loans extended in H110 was closer to CNY5.9trn, or 28% above the official figure of CNY4.6trn... From Special Report- The Secret Engine Behind China’s Housing...

If you have bad credit in the new era of credit card regulation, be prepared to pay -- dearly -- for the privilege of using credit. That's the message underlying recent credit card offers that feature jaw-dropping interest rates of up to 79.9 percent. The sky-high rates may be a sign of things to come in the market for so-called subprime credit cards as issuers who lend to the riskiest of borrowers try to figure out how to stay in business and comply with the new credit card reform law. "We need to price our product based on the risk...

The promise of easy money comes in an official-looking envelope marked, "Important Financial Information Enclosed." Need $2.5 million at 1 percent to 2 percent to buy or refinance a home? No problem. Borrowers put no money down and pay just interest. A good credit rating is not a requirement. Bankruptcy judgments, debt charge-offs or tax liens don't matter, and "all difficult credit scenarios are okay," the lender says. The home-financing offers come from an army of mortgage brokers estimated at 250,000 nationwide, many operating outside the reach of banking regulators. They have become the principal source of home financing in...

America's military bases are under siege by an army of financial predators known as "payday lenders." Legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 97, called The Service Members Anti-Predatory Lending Protection Act, would protect our military from these fiscal parasites by capping outrageous interest rates. Unfortunately only a handful in Congress take the threat seriously. You'll find payday lenders in storefront offices and check-cashing outlets up and down East 22nd Street in Tucson right outside Davis-Monahan Air Force Base. They line the highways near the big Navy bases in Norfolk and Hampton, Va. And they surround the Camp Pendleton...