The payday industry appears to have its hooks into attorney general-elect Chris Koster.
In the Nov. 3 Turner Report, I noted that payday loan interests funneled at least $6,500 into Koster's campaign during the last few days before the election, by contributing it to the Economic Growth Councill, which, in turn, placed it in Koster's account:
The council's Ethics Commission filing shows it received $5,000 from Check into Cash, Cleveland, Tenn. and $1,500 from Axcess Financial, Albuquerque, N. M.
The Economic Growth Council has been a useful tool for Koster throughout the primary and general election campaigns. In the Aug. 2 Turner Report I noted that the Council was used to begin the laundering process for $10,000 from Vacation Services of America, a company that the man Koster wants to succeed, Jay Nixon, accused of bilking customers just four years ago:
But that $6,500 was just a drop in the bucket. The man who contributed more money than anyone else into Koster's campaign, billionaire Rex Sinquefield, has made it clear he does not want any regulation of the payday loan industry. When Sinquefield was shutting down the 100 political action committees he formed to circumvent Missouri's previous campaign contribution limits, he contributed $46,550 to Koster on Nov. 25, which was noted in the Nov. 29 Turner Report.
Governor-elect Jay Nixon has promised payday loan reform. It looks like the attorney general from his own party may stand in his way.
And where has the bur under your saddle Mr Sinquefield made it clear he doesn't want any regulation of the payday loan industry? Sources?
ReplyDeleteIf I had to guess, I would bet you will say it is the Show Me Institute paper you read on MOPNS. You are such a dolt that you don't understand that Sinquefield doesn't direct the outcome of studies like you do your personal opinion blog laced with a little, very little, truth.
If you have another source, please enlighten us. Otherwise, you continue to show your lack of journalistic integrity by inserting your personal opinion without identifying as such. Wow, I'm shocked.
I have to agree. This blog is so presumptive: this is akin to saying that because I helped create my children, everything that comes out of their mouth is sanctioned and directed by me. A laughable thought!
ReplyDeleteI actually read the payday loan article, and it seems to me that payday loan companies don't need a watchdog. Perhaps Mr. Turner can serve as a watchdog if he so desires, but I don't think the state has some inherent knowledge that a loan-seeker doesn't have.
The better choice would be through competition. Don't limit a company who is meeting a need! But perhaps those who feel payday lenders serve that need poorly would put their money where their mouth is and step up to offer a better way for low-income folk to get short-term access to extra cash flow.
It is exactly that principle that allows this very blog to run and allows people to read it, even though I think it is not newsworthy but rather a forum for Randy Turner's opinion.
So Randy, where did Koster find the time to direct two of his cronies to try to rip you?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #3, Randy, really, to stoop to the level of posting on your own blog in defense of yourself, rather unbecoming.
ReplyDeleteOf course I don't believe Turner did the forgoing anymore than I believe Koster did as the less than brilliant Anonymous #3 suggested either.
I know I have no relationship to Koster or Turner or Sinquefield but agree with the first two posters.
I also have no relationship to the pay day loan people but it seems to me that they are giving money to people who can't get money any other way. THey are too risky. So politicians who wouldn't lend these same people money either, want to make sure than many of them no longer have access to this source of cash because their poor and idiotic proposal would dry up lending any $'s to these people.
But, it's easy for politicians and people like Mr. Turner to tell others how they should run their business even if they tell them to run it into the ground.