My op/ed on "Usury" ran in Sioux Falls today

They archive this stuff and the links go cold in about a week...

My Voice: Loss of credit card jobs sign of better times | argusleader.com | Argus Leader

They edited out some key quotation marks (the banker's hypothetical questions were a direct quote from the same paper). They also dropped the citation on Ezekiel. But Glory to God for this opportunity, and I pray that it will comfort some burdened neighbor, or keep someone out of bad borrowing, or touch a conscience here and there. Here's my draft:

South Dakota is losing some jobs in the credit card business, and some see that as bad news. Let me tell a different story.

Late last year, my wife gasped out “What’s wrong?” She saw me hunched at the computer, the online bill pay program flickering, my face blank and my hands limp in my lap.

“It’s gone” was all I could say. Years of mounting debt, tens-of-thousands of dollars of it, had disappeared in five minutes. It was beyond belief, and I just sat staring at the screen.

Our financial deliverance was a big retroactive check for my wife’s first years of disability. I sat down immediately to pay off the credit cards that we had run up since she had to stop working.

That’s right, we paid our debts. We had borrowed to pay huge, persistent medical bills, used cards to buy groceries and medicine when paychecks couldn’t stretch far enough, and I worked extra jobs to juggle the payments. We tapped friends, family and church when unexpected, overwhelming bills landed. We sold one car and shared the one that was left. We struggled to keep paying the mortgage on the equity-losing home where we care for two disabled family members. We contemplated bankruptcy but kept clawing and crawling, sometimes to the lenders for “payment plans.” And when we had the money together, we paid.

In other words, we played by the rules and still came within a few months of being wiped out under them.

"Whose responsibility is it to know the balance on a card? Is it you or the bank? Is it the bank's responsibility to keep you from spending more than you have?" The questions were posed last February in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader by Dana Dykhouse, CEO of Sioux Falls based First Premier Bank. He affirmed the moral order of our culture: when there’s debt, the moral onus is on the borrower.

Allow me to speak financial heresy and say that’s upside down. There is another point of view, in which the moral onus is on the lender. Believe it or not, that’s what the Bible – often cited as the moral foundation of the Prairie – sets up.

The Bible warns lenders to refrain from overburdening borrowers. Seasons of debt forgiveness are commanded and there are harsh pronouncements against “usury,” the layering on of interest that keeps the borrower stuck in debt.

The Prophet Ezekiel, for example, warns against the “violent” person who “…does detestable things. He lends at usury and takes excessive interest (18:12-13).”

But America accepts the violence of usury.

We’ve allowed lenders to mail out unsolicited credit cards, pimping debt where none was sought, with the conditions and consequences buried in pages of small print legalese.

Until President Obama signed the Credit Card Reform Act late last year, “two cycle billing” was normal practice in the credit card industry, letting it heap interest on our balances coming into and going out of each month.

Lenders then tweaked their products to meet the letter of the law. Last December msnbc reported one of First Premier’s new products, aimed at people with poor credit. It offered a “79.9 percent interest rate and $75 annual fee... There's also $29 penalty if you pay late or go over your $300 credit limit.” In other words, banks ask you to establish credit by practicing bad borrowing habits.

“Pay Day” lenders continue to charge absurdly high interest for short-term loans marketed as compassionate help to the cash strapped.

The housing market is a mess because government entities solicited voting blocs by handing out money people couldn’t realistically repay.

Yes, people should repay their debts. But they should not be offered defective financial products that generate budget-busting interest and discouragement. Business, government and culture have colluded to dump both debt and blame upon moral, reasonable and hard working people.

So if some usury-generated, usury-generating jobs go away, I think things are moving in a better direction. +++

By the way, most of the "lost" jobs are by attrition or early retirement buy outs. There are not hordes of suddenly destitute bankers living under bridges as the industry apologists warned.

Credit Card (and other) Interest - None dare call it all Sin

One of my cards has a high balance due to some big family medical bills. I have paid on time and, as our situation has been improving, have been paying more than the minimum each month.

Well, the interest rate just jumped into outer space, almost doubling the expected monthly minimum.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this experience. And I've commented before on God's view of excessive interest - usury.

While the Bible certainly encourages financial prudence and avoidance of debt (here's a Proverb or two), God places heavier responsibility on those who lend. The Law of Moses contained elaborate teachings on debt forgiveness, and the Prophets had harsh things to say about usury.

Ezekiel, for example, celebrates the "righteous and just" man who

...does not lend at usury

or take excessive interest. (18:8)

The Prophet contrasts this man with a "son of violence" (18:10, Hebrew bayn-paritz, frequently translated "violent son") who

...oppresses the poor and needy.

He commits robbery.

He does not return what he took in pledge.

He looks to the idols.

He does detestable things.
He lends at usury and takes excessive interest. (18:12-13)

Yeah, I know. I made my bed, gotta lay in it. Invisible hand, American way and all that.

But when it comes to usury, "conservative" Americans need to take an honest look and ask if we are every bit as "un-Biblical" in our ways as the "liberals" we love to lambast. Jesus doesn't have much use for hypocrites.

Sioux Falls based credit card company targets "subprime" borrowers with freakish interest

h/t Dr. David O'Hara who shared this on Facebook.

Premier Bankcard, based here in Sioux Falls, will carry a 79.9% interest rate to evade fee limits that go into effect in 2010.

According to the report from msnbc,

"In a mailing sent to prospective customers in October with the revamped terms, First Premier writes '...you might have less-than-perfect credit and we're OK with that.' The letter notes that an online application or phone call is still required, but guarantees a 60-second status confirmation.

The letter also states there are no hidden fees that aren't disclosed in the attached form. That's where the 79.9 percent interest rate and $75 annual fee are listed. There's also $29 penalty if you pay late or go over your $300 credit limit.
Even if First Premier doesn't stick with the 79.9 APR, it will likely hike rates considerably from the current 9.9 percent to offset the lower fees..."

I've blogged about the Biblical condemnation of usury several times. You can type usury into the search function atop this blog and it will lead you to a number of posts. The bottom line is that God doesn't like it and places the moral onus on the lender, not the borrower.

It goes without saying that Christ is grieved by a culture that expects people to pile up December debt to celebrate his birth. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...full of grace and truth becomes something like "God sent us this great deal, albeit with high interest and hidden fees in the small print."

Despite the Biblical clarity, usury presents moral conundrums today. To eliminate it would cost many South Dakotans their jobs in the lending industry. First Premier's owner is South Dakotan T. Denny Sanford, who has used the wealth generated by the lending industry to become one of America's top philanthropists, including a substantial research project grant to attack juvenile diabetes. (I work part time in a medical system named for him and carry my family's medical coverage through their plan - so I guess you can say I benefit from usury).

The private sector isn't the only problem. Government programs aimed at present social problems are funded by financially encumbering future generations. My wife's Social Security disability has relieved our financial stress - but one might rightly argue that this is essentially money that future generations will struggle to pay for.

And so we come back to the Christmas message, don't we? In a world full of good intentions and unintended consequences, clear standards and cut corners, we do not find perfection. But the Word became flesh in Jesus, And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10). We are saved by a gift, pure and simple. Found treasure on the manger floor.

Sin in South Dakota: Usury

He does not exploit the poor, but instead is fair to debtors and does not rob them.
Ezekiel 18:16

Usury: ...the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates... an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest...

The Credit Card industry is such a major employer and influence here that our lone Representative, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, was the ONLY Democrat to vote against limits on interest rate and fee limits!

At the state level, South Dakota allows "payday loan" businesses to proliferate and charge horrific interest rates. As reported here earlier, the Legislature turned back efforts to limit usury in this "industry."

And the toxic impact of usury does not stop with its impact on debtors. South Dakota philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who amassed his fortune through the credit card business, recently sent $30,000,000 out of state to support embryonic (life destroying) stem cell research.

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Collect for Social Justice, BCP 1979

UPDATE: The Archbishop of York calls usurers "hyenas."

More shoppers avoiding credit cards this year... lenders load traps

Friday's NY Times Business section included an article on consumers shifting from credit cards to cash budgets this holiday spending season. (h/t Kendall Harmon, TitusOneNine)

"The lowest percentage of shoppers in the 27-year-history of a national survey said they used credit cards over the Thanksgiving weekend, while the use of general credit cards like Visa and MasterCard fell 11 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the credit bureau TransUnion."

The article includes examples of the havoc and healing experienced by people who suffered the consequences of past credit card shopping and have moved to a cash budget approach for this year's gift buying. Many of their accounts support the arguments in Bishop Paul Peter Jesep's Credit Card Usury and the Christian Failure to Stop It:

"Financial stress can negatively - even severely - impact things outside of your wallet: your health, your job, and your relationships," confirmed David Alecock, a vice president of InCharge Institute, a non-profit credit counseling organization. Ted Hagen, PhD, a family psychologist and authors Judi Light Hopson and Emma H. Hopson, R.N. of Burnout to Balance: EMS Stress cited in an op-ed a debt counselor who described some seeking help as so anxious that they were exploring death as an option. The counselor also concluded, as have other experts, that credit card debt is destroying families and friendships.

Nevertheless, lenders who depend upon heavy interest (usury), card fees and penalties are trying to lure people back into bad habits, as detailed by the Times:

When people overspend, credit card issuers reap profit from consumers who pay only part of their bills. Shoppers using retailers’ branded cards tend to spend more and visit stores more, said Robert S. Drbul, an analyst at Barclays Capital. So all are offering big incentives to get people to use plastic.

The Chase Freedom and Discover More cards, for instance, are offering $100 bonuses when new credit card customers spend a certain amount within the first three months, along with 5 percent cash back on holiday purchases at department stores and other categories.

Citibank is giving Dividend cardholders 5 percent back on spending at department, clothing and electronics stores through Dec. 31. Target is giving its cardholders a 5 percent discount on purchases, Neiman Marcus is advertising extra rewards points on most purchases on certain days this month, and Sears has been running a variety of no-payment, no-interest offers on its credit cards throughout the holidays.

Bishop Jesep criticizes this marketing of debt, moving from Consumer Reports and statistics to a summary of ancient and current Christian critiques:

Even if the plight of debtors is in part by their own making it still doesn't excuse "luring consumers into debt waters," as Consumer Reports noted, "well over their head..." Creditors can't blame the class they created "then punish" them with "significantly higher interest rates and fees"...

...In 2009, $20.5 billion in penalty fees on credit cards will be assessed...

...Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Gregory of Nyssa (330-395), and Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) were among the early church leaders to speak against usury...

...In July 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issues the encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). In it the Bishop of Rome warned against profit becoming an exclusive goal. He noted that "if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty... dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner..."

...Although it's been unconvincingly argued that better regulating interest rates will deprive the poor or lower middle class access to credit, it seems disingenuous when a constant revenue source is created through high interest... Credit card companies, by the way, refer to those who pay off debt each month as "deadbeats" and "freeloaders" ... profit models are now based on the expectation that consumers don't pay off debt each month.

Ukrainian Orthodox Bishop calls out the church on its silence about usury

The mailman brought a nice surprise in the form of a note from Bishop Paul Peter Jesep of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, along with a copy of the just-released Second Edition of his book, Credit Card Usury and the Christian Failure to Stop It.

I'm not through the book yet but I really liked this section on how responsible borrowing must be matched by responsible lending:

"There is also the flip side to the personal responsibility of using a credit card. There is the corporate responsibility by bankers not to exploit the working poor and middle class with credit card fees and interest rates that will make them a permanent revenue source. There is the responsibility by credit card companies not to develop business models with the intent to make individuals max out their credit cards.

There is the choice for collection agencies to treat all persons with respect, dignity and humanity. There is the choice in choosing a fair profit over greed and unjust gain. There is the choice for credit score bureaus to demand far more documentation, though not yet legally required, from credit card and collection agencies. There is the personal responsibility by self-described Christians employed as executives in the financial services industries to set policies that are just and equitable reflecting corporate responsibility."

The part of the book I've finished mainly establishes the social problem and the systemic issues involved in credit card usury. I'm looking forward to upcoming chapters in which the Bishop applies Christian spirituality and theology to the issue, and I will share more in coming days.

Revolving debt usury "a great thing for South Dakota"

From today's Sioux Falls Argus Leader Business Journal. It's a fact that the financial growth and well being of Sioux Falls specifically and South Dakota generally came from various state and federal actions that allowed SD to host revolving debt businesses. Employment, service sector businesses, and certain government revenues and services all hinged on decisions that allowed usurious lending.

...Citibank opened a credit card center in February 1981 in Sioux Falls, which jump-started the city's financial services industry...

...Thomas Reardon moved that the association propose that regulated institutions be removed from the usury limit. Reardon's brother-in-law, Pierre banker Chuck Burke, seconded the motion. Hajek learned years later that Reardon had arranged to have Burke second the motion to keep the proposal alive...

...The slightly stunned bankers left the meeting wondering whether they really could sell the idea of eliminating usury rates on banks. However, bill sponsors were found, and the measure passed the first house without much fanfare and was cruising to approval.

About this time, Citibank contacted Gov. Bill Janklow and expressed interest in potentially moving its credit card operation from the restrictive regulatory environment of New York. Janklow and the Legislature enthusiastically obliged the company by approving technical legislation that would allow Citibank to do business in South Dakota...

..."Looking back 30 years, it's been a great thing for South Dakota."

The strange moral universe of the usury state

I caught another article on Sioux Falls based First Premier Bank's 79.9% interest rate credit card. You know, the humanitarian effort to help people with "bad credit,"

"I had an accident on a motorcycle, went through bankruptcy to pay for medical expenses and my credit went to hell in a hand basket, so I was looking for credit cards for people with bad credit" Riss said.

They granted her a card with a $300 limit -- typical for new customers -- and a starting rate of 29.9%, which Riss said she considered decent given her credit score.

But about six months after opening the card -- at the end of 2009 -- she received an unwelcome surprise in the mail.

"I about had a heart attack when I got a disclosure notice saying that my starting rate of 29.9% was going up to 79.9%," said Riss. "It was ludicrous. Talk about a highway robbery."

At that same time, First Premier Bank launched a new credit card with the sky-high 79.9% rate.

The card proved popular with consumers, said First Premier Bankcard CEO Miles Beacom, but the performance was bad: "A lot of the people ran up the card, defaulted and went directly to charge off."

As a result, they dropped the rate to 59.9%. "We also tested it at 23%, 33%, 45%, but 59.9% is the one that shows the best performance and where the organization can market the product," he said.

"Where the organization can market the product"? What usurers essentially say is, "Hey, we just want to stand on rooftops and throw bags of money down to everybody. But really, really bad people just keep messing us up. You know, those bad people who don't want to roll with us when we raise their rate from 30% to 80%. And then there's that bad government,"

[Said First Premier CEO Miles Beacom,] "Before the new regulations we had the ability to hold specific individuals accountable for their own actions by charging these fees," he said. "Now we must spread this risk out among all our customers through higher APRs."

That's right, before last year's credit card reform act, revolving debt, "two cycle billing," hidden fees and charges for products nobody ordered ordered ("well, you didn't actually decline our special identity protection plan") didn't mess with anybody, except borrowers who didn't pay enough for lenders to profit on their revolving debt for a few decades. But now that government got involved, these afflicted lenders have to spread the hurt to everybody.

Except guess what? In 2008, when the new regulations weren't even a gleam in the government's eye, there were other baaaaaaad forces messing with the credit card companies' munificent desire to give money away,

The jump in credit-card charge-offs is linked in part to the credit crisis now in play. As banks have tightened lending standards, they have mostly done away with the once-popular roll-over options — usually at 0% introductory rates — that allowed borrowers with delinquent accounts to get new cards elsewhere. Larkin believes all that bad credit is going to surface quickly and could have a similar impact as the mortgage crisis has had on banking.

But credit-industry analysts shake those prognostications off, noting that the number of dollars involved in credit cards loans versus mortgages is substantially lower.

“Defaults on $2,000 or $5,000 in credit-card debt are entirely different than someone defaulting on a $500,000 mortgage,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com.

“I’m skeptical that the magnitude of credit quality is going to be as severe as some say,” he added.

The average credit-card debt is $2,200, according to the Federal Reserve. On a revolving basis, there was roughly $970 billion owed on credit cards at the end of July. However, because many people use credit cards for the rewards programs and pay off their debt each month, it’s unclear how much of that total is actually outstanding.

What’s more, as delinquencies rise — and they will because of the weakness of the economy — credit-card issuers will take steps to stem the tide. That will include cutting credit off from problem borrowers and tightening restrictions on new cards.

That's right, they can't give away all that free money because of housing market pressures. It's the economy, stupid.

Usurers love to shovel shame. There would be no problems if borrowers were responsible for their own debt. That's the 'murican way, like Jesus or somebody said.

Except when you read what usurers say about their actions, they are like amoral little kids. It's the deadbeats' fault. It's the government. It's the housing market. He hit me first. She's lying! I wasn't even there!

The people who market credit cards market other financial products. If one area is weak, they simply find a way to generate more profit in another. That's fine, that's prudent. But they need to be honest about it and not act like their credit card business is some philanthropic stand alone, victimized by the rest of us.

It's tough. South Dakota is not an easy place to grow an economy, and the conscious decision to let usurers set up big time shop here isn't going to be reversed without lost jobs and a lot of money no longer flowing into the state.

But revolving debt usurers, if we accept their proposition that borrowers are simply irresponsible, economically illiterate louts, are really no different than pimps or drug dealers. They market a "product" that is morally questionable and certainly not good to the stupid customer, the stupid customer's family or even the stupid customer's community in certain cases.

South Dakota hasn't made up its moral mind.

Is the state a libertarian theme park ("Ayn RandLand")? Then why stop at unregulated usury? Let Deadwood have prostitutes and small towns their narcotics production. Let Planned Parenthood market its "service" and do business outside of Sioux Falls. Repeal the "one man - one woman" marriage thingy.

Or is South Dakota New Jerusalem on the Prairie? If that's the case, then why build an economic base on usury - a practice that God has cursed?

How did this get past us?

The South Dakota Legislature failed to move a bill that would have capped the interest rate on short term "payday" loans.

Some of these loans, marketed heavily on TV and radio in the state, carry actual interest of 400% (no typo, that's four hundred percent).

With all the things that churches pray, work and fight over, there was little if any Christian noise about this issue. But God is pretty loud about it:

If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest. Exodus 22:25

He lends at usury and takes excessive interest. Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head. Ezekiel 18:13

And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. Luke 6:34

Yes, I know. We live in an economy where all of us borrow and just about everything runs on credit. But for a long time the Church stood against "usury." For some time, this meant any kind of lending at interest - later, this was interpreted to be "excessive interest."

Even with the later, more permissive definition, what's going on here in SD offends God.

I've already contacted some other Christian leaders and hope to bring this issue back for public attention. Please pray that this wicked practice will be curbed in South Dakota.

BREAKING: two bills introduced to combat SD usury

South Dakota Representative Steve Hickey and State Senator Joni Cutler have introduced two bill that seek to curb the crushing interest and profiteering of "Payday" lenders:

House Bill 1223 aims to share the wealth of usurers for the common good, amending the lender licensing law to require a $5,000 fee for would-be payday and title lenders.

House Bill 1224, which includes sponsoring Representatives Hickey, Blake, Elliott, Fargen, Feinstein, Hubbel, B. Hunhoff, Killer, Kirschman, Kloucek, Kopp, S. Nelson, Russell, Sidgestad and Verchio, along with Senators Cutler, Holein, Lederman and Schleckeway, caps the interest rate (which can rise into the hundreds of percent) at 36% annual percentage rate (APR).

Please contact and encourage your South Dakota legislators to support restrictions on usury. You can look them up and track the bills at the State Legislative site.

Fr. David Handy provokes a thought or two... like, "If the church is supposed to be a rainbow, why is it just lavender?"

In a comment under one of yesterday's posts, Fr. David Handy writes:

... but we have blithely forgotten that usury is a serious sin. Medieval Christendom took it very seriously.

And that gets me thinking, "Why can't The Episcopal Church lock in on real issues that can unite Christians, instead of slobbering over homosexual entitlements all the time?"

Frankly, working against usury would unite very conservative, Biblical Christians and more "liberal" (not an ideal word) people interested in social application of the Gospel.

Then there are the horrific issues on the Indian Reservations, such as the suicide rates among young people on the Rosebud. Again, very traditional Christians are attuned to the spiritual dimension of the problem, and the more liberal church is attuned to the need for funding, counselors and ministry programs that can help meet the need.

But no, The Episcopal Church has adopted the "Lavender Ghetto" as its model for ministry. Exclusive, closed off (except for occassional bouts of exhibitionism), fearful to the point of paranoia, demonizing or ridiculing the "straight world" outside... is there really any difference between TEC and the gay "district" in some gray, anonymous city?

Hey, other 49 states, if you think South Dakota usury culture doesn't impact you...

Check this out.

More confirmation that usury and things financial are worth Christian input...

Check out the Epistle and Gospel I'll be preaching from on my first Sunday back from sabbatical.

Short email to my legislators re: the usury bills. People, please speak up.

"It is my hope that you will support efforts like HB 1223 & HB 1224 to curb the excesses of payday and title lenders. These loans are simply not good financial practice any more than smoking is good for the health. The state has curbed smoking venues - it is my hope that we can curb lending practices that keep people in debt."

Please contact your legislators. The State Legislature site is quite friendly for this. It is very important that people speak up. Usurious lenders are organized and they depend upon borrowers' two part shame:

1) the stigma of having been in debt in the first place;

2) the stigma of having entered into the really stupid deal these payday and title lenders offer.

So please, get over your shame. They advertised as nice people who would help you out of a bad spot. Yeah, you got suckered. We all do from time to time, in different ways.

But why consider yourself worse than someone who would charge a neighbor 500% interest on a loan and roll it over more than once to bury him even deeper in the debt? What kind of neighbor takes the title to your clunker and then keeps it, giving you the choice between keeping the heat on in January or getting to work in February?

Please speak up - many legislators will blow these issues off if you don't.

SAME Judges sanctioned abortion and predatory lending

It was that "moderate" Burger Court: Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Blackmun, Brennan, Douglas, Marshall, Powell, Rehnquist, Stewart and White.

Rehnquist and White dissented from the abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade (1973).

But the whole gang found Kumbaya unanimity in forbidding your state to pass laws to protect you from excessive interest and other forms of usury inflicted on you by credit card companies or other lenders operating from other states. That was in Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corporation (1978).

I wish I were a lawyer, better equipped to survey the Burger Court's various decisions for common themes.

These two cases alone inflicted conflict and chaos on the nation, creating problems as acute today as in the 70s. Arguable rights to poor decisions became cultural norms, and moral calls for discernment and restraint were refuted as busy-body intrusions.

President Obama, House of Reps. stand up to predatory lenders, Rep. Herseth-Sandlin doesn't

I've blogged several times about the Biblical sin of usury, by which lenders overwhelm borrowers and keep them in debt with excessive interest or tricks of the trade.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives, with President Obama's support, approved a bill to curb some lenders' predatory tactics. The Senate still needs to pass it into law.

The bill would stop a disgusting practice called "double cycle billing", by which credit card companies factor your last month's balance (the one on which you already paid) in with your current billing cycle's daily average balance to jack your finance charge way high (check your credit card - many of the major ones are doing this to you.)

Because South Dakota is home to some significant lending institutions, Rep. Stephaine Herseth-Sandlin (D) voted against the bill. She cited concerns about how restricted credit might hurt the struggling economy and threaten jobs in South Dakota's lending industry.

President Obama has criticized the credit card industry for using hidden fees and other tricks as profit centers. There are both "liberal" and "conservative" critiques of the these practices, as Jay Hancock points out in the Baltimore Sun:

The liberal case for credit-card reform is well known: Greedy banks victimize card users with high interest rates and outrageous fees; Congress must crack down to make the system fair.

Here is the less-known, conservative argument: Credit card complexity prevents users from making rational decisions about borrowing and spending, thus hurting the economy; Congress must intervene to make the system understandable.

I pray that your shopping's been in budget...

...and the Ugley Vicar has been blogging for some time about the harm done to you by excessive interest - "usury" - and how the church has let us all down by giving this truly Biblical sin a pass.

Here's a bit of his work from last year, which suddenly put me in touch with the irony of how we slave for the gods of this world while supposedly preparing to welcome the Savior:

"The Western church, at least, seems to have nothing to say, just when a ‘prophetic’ voice might actually come in handy. We could, for example, be denouncing First and Second world debt, or warning about the credit-card culture, but we are not. Instead, we are paralysed by the headlights.

But the Church also seems unready for the spiritual challenges this implies and entails, for (as history again shows) economic hard times bring with them spiritual risk. This may not be the time before the End Times, but it certainly provides the opportunity for spiritual forces which have been at work throughout history to manifest themselves in ways which will be simultaneously both deeply attractive to the mass of humanity and deeply inimical to God’s people.

I am constantly reminded of the verses from Revelation 13 which express, I believe, not so much a prediction as a recurring theme of history: “He [that is the second beast who is the ‘false prophet’, 19:20] also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

Who, in 2009, could imagine the free countries of the West succumbing to a system of economic dictatorship? Yet who in 1950s England could imagine a London bus ticket costing over a pound? And who, in early Weimar Germany, would have imagined Christians would be unsure how to respond to a man who offered them economic security and a glorious future at the price of complete obedience?"

South Dakota: bad loans are the norm and go unexamined

And by "bad loan" I don't mean one that isn't repaid. I mean a bad financial instrument.

"Pay Day" loans are short term advances, not requiring collateral (although there are also "Title Loans" by which folks can borrow by signing over their car or other property). Pay Day loans, in particular, have horrific interest rates and, in South Dakota, a "four time rollover" provision that allows the lender to extend the repayment period to the point that the borrower ultimately pays way more than the original loan principle and interest combined.

When I Googled "pay day loans south dakota," the first two and a half pages of listings were advertisements for Pay Day lenders. It wasn't until the third page that I ran into this:

South Dakota Payday Loan Laws | Debt Consolidation Payday Loans, which begins:

"South Dakota is one of those very few states that have made almost no attempts to restrict the predatory nature of short-term cash advances that are issued as payday loans."

The general defense of these loans is that they create small businesses. But South Dakotans recently took the risk of cutting into bar & casino profits by banning smoking in most establishments. There is no reason that an inherently bad financial business couldn't be regulated to protect consumers, who would inevitably spend the money sucked up by usury in other sectors of the economy.

There's some discussion starting on the usury article...

At the Argus Leader link in the earlier post.

The objections so far are red herrings (or are they red walleyes? red lutefisk? I dunno I'm an immigrant here). Basically, "What kind of false Christian are you, rejoicing in people losing their jobs?"

The fact is, the credit card people said that massive job loss would result from restricting their usurious practices. But the "lost jobs" are mainly reassignments, positions eliminated after retirements and some early retirement buy-outs.

It is a bum economy and people are hurting. But that's not an excuse for making money by means disapproved of by God - means that in fact place terrible financial burdens on others.

Suggesting the need for a Savior

Madville Times would never take the data in the direction I'm about to go, but you should check out his excellent summary and links about the financial knowledge and habits of South Dakotans.

Basically, people here are very knowledgeable about how money and various financial instruments work. In fact, we test out at #3 in the USA on a simple quiz. Heck, even I went 5 for 5.

But when it comes to how we act on that knowledge, we are waaaaaaay bad. Almost 1/4 of us spend more than we take in, and an absurd number fall prey to "payday loans" and other forms of usury.

Which reminds me of this,

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Which reminds me of the church's message, that the world needs the Savior whose arrival we celebrate at Christmas.