Essay - Predatory Lending Outline Title: Between a Rock and a Hard...

Predatory Lending

Outline

Title: Between a Rock *****nd a Hard Place: The Difficulty of Enacting Usury Laws That Benefit the Poor and Leave Lenders Intact

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Chapter I: Introduction, or statement ***** the problem

History of anti-predatory (usury) lending laws

Current status ***** usury ***** in the United States

Recent laws enacted at the federal level

Chapter II: Review of the Literature and Research Questions

***** questions:

Are current anti-predatory lending laws too weak to protect the consumer?

How do Internet-based lenders with annual percentage rates in four figures escape the anti-predatory lending *****?

Is there an interest ceiling at which most consumers are protected, and ***** which most lenders will remain pr*****itably in the market?

Literature Review

Chapter *****I. Methodology

Literature review

State usury statute review

***** for statistical information leading to development of an actual or virtual 'break point' at which ***** lending laws would be most useful to the consumer *****d least harmful to *****

Chapter IV. Results

Chapter V. Discussion

References

Appendices

State anti-predat*****y lending law basics comp*****d

Exemplars of good *****s

Exemplars ***** bad laws

Annotated Bibliography

Pyle, M. J. (2003). A "Flip" look at predatory lending: Will ***** Fed's revised Regulation Z end abusive refinancing practices? Yale Law Journal, 112(7), 1919+.

***** looks at pred*****ory lending from two viewpoints; the legal viewpoint, and the human suffering viewpoint. In fact, he seems to say that ***** is no reason to talk about predatory ***** ***** without taking into account the effect of those practices on what he calls "t***** na*****ion's most vulnerable people." ***** cessation of such practices, he notes, could lead to a markedly improved quality of life for ***** population.

When he wrote, in 2003, the Fed was examining a specific portion of Regulation ***** that would prohibit loan "flipping," or refinancing an already high-cost loan within a year of origination, unless the refinancing *****nefited ***** borrower. Pyle noted that previous incarnations of anti-flipping regulations were *****o rigid, not allowing leeway for special circumstances. In the revisions he was *****, he admitted, t*****re was also room for too much prosecutorial discretion; in short, the ***** could still be used unfairly either against the borrower or ***** ***** lender, *****, arguably, both.

Pyle ********** traces the history of predatory lending, calling it a "long-standing social *****." Like ***** new regulations, he regards the use of predatory ***** as both a good ********** an evil in loan markets. On the positive side, it meant low-income and high-risk borrowers, in grater numbers than before, could ga***** access to the credit markets. On the other hand, there w***** a dramatic expansion in foreclosures. (It might even be possible to argue that the Clin*****n-era spending boom, fueled in part by subprime and ***** **********, led to the opposite overreaction in the recent tightening of the bankruptcy laws to ***** an extent that it is almost impossible for most people ***** relieve themselves of debt under them. Debate has raged over whether predatory lenders/credit card issuers first r***** up