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So what do we got today?
Lawmakers sought bailouts for shadow bankers: or more generally, they sought bailouts for controversial financial services that offer high-interest loans to low-income Americans and are generally under very little oversight. Also: all 14 of the lawmakers are members of the House Financial Services Committee and received campaign contributions from the lenders. Yikes.
Biden’s campaign is working to create a group of Republicans: at least supposedly, there’s an effort to create something of a “Republicans for Biden” movement.
Tara Reade was interviewed by Megyn Kelly: and while there wasn’t much new info to surface in the segment, it may be a central piece of what many end up creating their judgments around.
Come on and ZOOM! Come on and ZOOM! Come on and ZOOM! Y’know what we’re saying?
BAILOUTS
14 House Members Sought Bailouts for Controversial Lenders
The House Financial Services Committee. 14 members of it—seven Republicans and seven Democrats—asked the Federal Reserve to extend an emergency loan program intended for controversial financial firms that offer high-internet loans to poor folks. Basically, shady loan companies want to get good loans from the government.
Bad Loans for Bad Lenders
Here are the details as reported by HuffPost.
The letter, written to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, encouraged the Fed to open up eligibility offered by the TALF (or Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility). The request? Let “non-bank lenders and fintech platforms” qualify, too. “Non-bank lenders” are loans that are regulated less than bank loans, take on greater risk, and sometimes get called “shadow banking” due to their controversial nature. Fintech platforms are similar in that they’re online non-bank lenders.
What motivated them to write the letter? A letter from AFSA, or the American Financial Services Association, a political action committee that represents the interests of subprime lenders (remember 2008? No? Look into it.) that was sent to those 14 House members. All 14 of those lawmakers have received campaign contributions from the lenders.
TALF was actually created in the wake of 2008 to help out consumer lenders. Because of COVID-19, the program has been reinitiated but was intended to specifically exclude some of the more dodgy forms of lending. These lawmakers sought to change that by encouraging the Fed to include loans by “installment” lending firms, which offer high-interest, predatory loans to poor people.
Look Out for Loans
Remember where these kinds of lenders came from. After 2008, people were desperate for short-term cash and installment lending—or payday lending by another name—filled the void.
Some of these lawmakers have defended their actions by saying they need to get cash into the hands of American people, but these loans can be predatory and boast outrageous interest rates. Why not use existing safety nets instead?
Graham Steele, a former Democratic counsel on the Senate Banking Committee, told HuffPost that “it’s bad on the substance to have the Federal Reserve be lending to subprime consumer and small business lenders. It doesn’t look good when the members asking for that kind of bailout for these companies are also funded by those predatory lenders.”
When recessions come-a-callin’, so too do the sharks who see blood in the water. Just another case of parasites trying to capitalize on a pandemic.
Bottom line: do people need money in their hands? For sure. Does that mean we should saddle them with debt and allow industries whose entire existence is dependent on screwing people over take advantage of a global pandemic? Nope.
ELECTION 2020
Is Biden’s Campaign Building Up a Republican Group of Supporters?
Joe Biden’s language regarding Republicans has felt a bit weird to a lot of people. He won’t rule out having a Republican running mate or cabinet members, he seems to attack Trump exclusively and not the party that empowers him, and he said in an Instagram live chat that he has been “speaking to a lot of Republicans.”
What’s Joe’s Goal Here?
In that same live chat, he went on to say “matter of fact, there’s some major Republicans who are already forming ‘Republicans for Biden.’ Major officeholders.”
Longtime insiders aren’t clear on how strong of a movement or what form this will take, but what’s clear is that it is inevitable: there’s a movement of “Republicans for Biden”
Two big ideas floating around: an external group working as a political action committee or an internal operation with one or multiple major Republicans joining to help change Biden’s public perception.
Bottom line: Biden has always had a fondness for that old school, West Wing-ish “reach across the aisles” stuff. Whether it works (it hasn’t in the past), whether it converts into votes (it hasn’t in the past), or whether it’s a good idea whatsoever (it hasn’t been in the past) remains to be seen. Trumpism in the Republican party seems to be an unstoppable force but who’s to say.
READE REPORT
Tara Reade Sat Down With Megyn Kelly For Interview
Tara Reade sat down with Megyn Kelly for an over-40 minute long interview. You can check out the clip on YouTube if you’d like. This was Reade’s first on-camera interview regarding her sexual assault allegation against former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Some Highlight Moments
Reade’s politics: Reade has been a lifelong Democrat but now describes herself as “politically homeless.” She also says that she personally believes Biden should drop out of the race, though she understands why someone may still vote for him even if they believe her.
Filling in some details: Reade explained why she didn’t come forward until now. She cited that she voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but said that those votes were for Obama, not Biden. She also notes that her daughter was still young and she didn’t want to put her through it. Lastly, she talked about how it didn’t feel as though there were much of an apparatus for this kind of thing back then, but considering she’s an advocate for survivors of sexual assault, she feels compelled to now tell her story.
Moving forward: Reade says she’s willing to testify under oath and be cross-examined. On the subject of polygraphs, Reade points out that polygraphs aren’t admissible in court; she also says she’s not being accused of a crime. However, she did say she’d take one if Biden also took one.
Bottom line: this interview is emotional and worth a watch, regardless of how you end up feeling about the situation.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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