From left, Ernest Davis and daughter Mya at Preston Place, Amy Reed and Frances O’Neal in the Darley Park garden, and youth leaders walking in Oliver - Photos by Chris Hartlove
10 Percent Is Enough Campaign
In the wake of the economic collapse and current depression, Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, a network of 17 citizens’ organizations including BUILD, has called for a 10 percent cap on interest rates.
Usury — the practice of overcharging borrowers — strips both financial fairness and equity from the relationship between lender and borrower and contributed to the current financial morass.
Interest rate caps are not new. Until laws against usury were repealed three decades ago, interest rates were capped, with some exceptions, at 9 percent. In the context of these caps, banks found ways to operate profitably.
What is new is the repeal of these limits. Between March 2007 and February 2008, 70 million American credit card holders experienced increases in finance charges.
Interest rates of 25 and 35 percent, and higher, are common. Without any fiscal restraints, with this mix of high interest and high fees, incalculable damage was and is being done to families, communities, and country.
Metro IAF is pushing for the 10 percent cap on interest rates as a real-world solution. It is enough to allow credit to flow to worthy borrowers. It is enough to protect families from permanent indebtedness. It is enough to allow bankers a fair share of profits. And it is enough to divert our economy from speculative financial gambling and back to productive wealth creation in real industries of the future, including green manufacturimg and sustainable energy.
Usury — the practice of overcharging borrowers — strips both financial fairness and equity from the relationship between lender and borrower.
