Unintended Consequences of Regulation

Recall last year that Obama heralded the new credit card regulations.  No longer were credit card companies going to rip off consumers with high interest rates.  Those dirty credit card companies were preying on minorities, taking their hard earned money away from them in the name of corporate profits…..right?

Wrong.

What is the result?  Riskier people now have no access to credit.  How do you expect them to qualify for loans when they can’t generate a credit history?

But that’s not all.  At TigerHawk they are reporting on how Stay At Home mom’s can’t qualify for credit.  Since they don’t have a “salary”, stores are not offering them the opportunity to get a credit card.

My wife, who is a stay at home mom, said, “Obama just made it tougher on women.  Not only that, but Obama just disenfranchised women from building a personal credit history in case of divorce.”  Perceptive, but hopefully not predictive of my own situation!

Can you imagine the plight of a newly divorced stay at home mom with no access to any kind of credit at all-especially if the father is late on his support payments?

At the same time, the Obama administration has cracked down on Payday Loan stores.  Obama is capping the interest rate they can charge.  So, they just aren’t cashing as many checks as they used to.  Obama is crippling the ability of the poorest workers to turn their work efforts into cash.  Much better to just wait for that government check I guess.

Read more at Points and Figures