News

22839 readers

3690 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

rjc@lemmy.world

Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

Blackbeard@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

jeffw@lemmy.world

127

A Wisconsin Tribe Built a Lending Empire Charging 600% Annual Rates to Borrowers (www.propublica.org)

submitted 1 month ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In bankruptcy filings and consumer complaints, thousands of people across the country make pleas for relief from high-interest loans with punishing annual rates that often exceed 600%.

Although they borrowed small sums online from a slew of businesses with catchy names — such as Loan at Last or Sky Trail Cash — their loans stemmed from the same massive operation owned by a small Native American tribe in a remote part of Wisconsin.

Over the past decade, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has grown to become a prominent player in the tribal lending industry, generating far-reaching impact and leaving a legacy of economic despair. A ProPublica analysis found companies owned by the LDF tribe showed up as a creditor in roughly 1 out of every 100 bankruptcy cases sampled nationwide.

That’s the highest frequency associated with any of the tribes doing business in this sector of the payday loan industry. And it translates to an estimated 4,800 bankruptcy cases, on average, per year.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Badabinski@kbin.earth 16 points 1 month ago

I'm fairly certain that they lend to everyone, not just other tribes. The article makes it sound like the tribes out in the boonies need to do something to survive, and the US federal aid mandated in our treaties is hideously insufficient for their needs. Like, I think that what they're doing is bad because you shouldn't harm people, and you especially shouldn't harm people who are struggling. However, I can at least understand why they're doing it. I can also see that the society they're targeting shares responsibility for the situation. If the US had been continuously honoring the letter and spirit of the treaties we signed with the tribes, then the tribes would've have to resort to exploitative shit like casinos and predatory lending to make money. People will do whatever it takes to improve their situation, and it's a shame that the US has failed in this regard.

As an aside and for the sake of clarity, I think casinos are predatory and exploit people who don't understand their odds, but I'm not against their existence in general, or their existence on reservations. Native American folks can do what they want, it's their goddamned land, and the consenting adults who go to casinos have a responsibility to themselves. I only bring up casinos because of my perception of them and their presence on reservations.

(Also, fuck non-tribe people that use reservations as a way to skirt US regulations. I had no idea that non-tribe people used tribes as fronts for shitty lending operations. Again, kinda smells like something that could have been prevented with proper federal aid.)