The New Thrift

In true blogger fashion, I’ve brought my laptop along to a conference we are co-hosting today on Confronting the Debt Culture.

It is a pretty compelling gathering for a couple of reasons. First off, the idea behind the conference is to raise the profile of the concept of thrift and all of the anti-thrift institutions that now prevade our culture. Secondly, the conference is sponsored by a really diverse set of organizations. It has been spreaheaded by the Institute for American Values, a group lead by David Blackenhorn which has mainly been known for its work promoting marriage. In recent years David has become a champion of thrift and has teamed up with other groups such as Demos, Consumer Federation of America, Public Agenda, and others.

It is being filmed and I supsect the keynotes will be posted. I highly recommend the presentation of Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah who has focused his research on usury laws. It turns out that it is an ancient concept. Chris showed a slide of the babalonian stone that stated a 33% cap on loans of grain. He went on to describe the legal framework which governs payday lending across the country today and the wide range of abusive practices that are completely legal in many states. Recently, Congress capped payday loans at 36% APR but in many places it can exceed 450%! This is an area that needs alot more sunlight. He had a couple of great charts which showed how the proliferation of payday lending stores has vastly outpaced Starbucks shops and McDonalds Restaurants. And they dont add value, they strip assets from households that can not afford the hit.