Free Republic

A Malaysian family has been living in fear after they were harassed by loansharks from Singapore who tossed petrol bombs into their home in Malacca and started a fire. A man in the family is suspected of getting into trouble with the loansharks while working in Singapore, reported China Press. Li Kai Ming, a social activist in Malaysia told the Chinese daily that he received a call for help from the man's ex-wife about two weeks ago. The loansharks had obtained her address in Malacca and were harassing the family for money. The woman, who also works in Singapore, told...

Bill Dal Cerro of the Italic Institute of America [Free for All, Dec. 28] took Dana Milbank to task for allegedly stereotyping Italians in his Dec. 22 Sunday Opinion column, “Godfathers of the Capitol.” But Milbank never used the word “Italian.” He did write “mafia” twice, and he used the phrase “going to the mattresses” once. He also used the term “mob boss.” In my opinion, it takes more effort than it is worth to be offended, no matter what one’s origins, by any of these words. It seems to me that even in “today’s enlightened era,” to use Dal...

It runs several times a day and I finally paid attention to the "fine print". Interest rate on a 10k loan is 89.66%, payments $743.99 for 84 months. Now, I'm not against a private business lending money at an interest rate, but doesn't 89.66% seem a little high?

In the early 1990s, U.S. tycoon Ross Perot criticized the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for threatening to suck U.S. jobs south. In the 15 years since the trilateral agreement, another giant sucking sound is coming – but from the flow of pesos across the Rio Grande and over the Atlantic into the coffers of foreign banks that are charging millions of Mexicans usurious rates that can top 100 percent. Jorge Sanchez is feeling the effects. A modestly paid government employee in his 40s, Sanchez fell into the plastic trap. Trying to close the gap between a stagnating...

MALAYSIAN loan sharks have a new weapon in their growing struggle to get borrowers to repay debts: beautiful women. 'They go to your office or house and sit there' to shame you into paying, said Michael Chong, 60, who has worked for two decades as a mediator between the illegal lenders and their debtors. 'If it's your house, they will wait outside and make lots of noise, and you cannot wallop the girl.' That's in addition to the traditional incentives such as putting debtors in a cage, splashing their houses in red paint or breaking their limbs, said Mr Chong,...

Crisis Looms in Mortgages (subprime, teaser rate loans come due)

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Navy officials said they will continue to pursue predatory lending legislation after California lawmakers significantly weakened language and then voted against Assembly Bill (AB) 1965 on the last day of session, Aug. 31. Lawmakers in the California Senate rejected a bill that proposed a 36 percent rate cap for payday loans, deferral of payments while deployed and a grace period for up to 30 days upon a service member returning from a deployment. “If you [a civilian] choose to find yourself in this situation, your job is not at risk, national security is not in jeopardy,”...

Companies have issued record volumes of junk bonds in recent years, spurred by low interest rates and a wave of leveraged buyouts. And yield-hungry investors were snapping up the riskier debt...... Default for most investors means big losses, a function of industry problems or economic downturn. But among Wall Street's restructuring advisors, bad times mean good business..... Poised to rise A strong economy and the lowest interest rates in decades pushed default rates for non-investment grade, or junk bonds down to 1.25 percent last year -- a seven-year low and below the historic 5 percent average...... But banks noted that...

When we first began writing about the possibility of a housing bubble nearly three years ago, economists who sketched a grim scenario of downward spiraling prices largely were dismissed as overly pessimistic cranks. So far, their harsh projections have failed to materialize. But even the most optimistic housing industry boosters are beginning to worry, to wonder and to wish out loud for a cooling-off period....... Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who as recently as last year dismissed talk of a speculative housing bubble, now acknowledges that there are “a lot of local bubbles” in the housing market, although he sees...

A lawyer at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) will testify tomorrow before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Small Business on how payday lenders prey on military personnel. The Subcommittee on Rural Enterprise, Agriculture and Technology meets in Kansas City, Missouri amid newspaper reports on service members victimized by payday lenders, who often get their customers trapped in loans running into more than 400 percent interest. Kathleen Keest, a lawyer for CRL, will tell the legislators that predatory payday lending costs Americans over $3.4 billion in excessive fees and that military personnel are prime targets...

Lenders Sink U.S. Soldiers Into Debt By RUSS BYNUM ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - On Gen. Screven Way, the one-mile strip of fast-food joints and pawn shops leading to the front gate of Fort Stewart, getting a cash loan of $100 to $500 is about as easy as buying a cheeseburger. Numerous strip-mall businesses bear names like Check Into CA$H ("Need Cash Today? It's Easy as 1-2-3"), First American Cash Advance, Gold Check C.S. Payday Advance, and PJ Cash ("Civilian and Military Welcome"). Fort Stewart has declared these so-called payday lenders enemies at its gate, accusing them of...