Toronto, ON-- BNP Paribas, Saddam Hussein's favourite bank, is in the payday loan shark business, finding many of its customers from within the ranks of american military personal. Keeping it confidential which companies it is involved with on the new business front, the bank is operating with impunity.
In its BNP-Paribas Watch, www.innercitypress.org reports that BNP is staying mum on which companies it is involved in on a flourishing new cottage industry in the U.S.: 7-11-style payday loan type operations.
as prolific as dandelions in spring, payday loan storefront operations are thick around military bases.
an underwear clad Saddam may be lingering in a jail, but it seems that his former favoured aTM machine has a foot in where he would like his to be.
By all accounts, it's a brisk business. Considered by consumer advocates as modern day loansharks, payday loan operators are opening storefront operations across the american landscape. Here's the kicker: the highest known density of the payday loan shark operations are concentrated around military facilities.
Preying on the vulnerable, the loan sharks are plunging soldiers as young as their early 20s into crushing debt.
"They raped me financially," airman 1st class Noelle Buessing told the Tucson Citizen.
Tucson legislators and consumer advocates say that the payday loan sharks are "a threat to the financial health of the 6,500 military personnel at Davis-Monthan aFB".
arizona is far from being the only state where 7-11-style payday loan storefronts are doing brisk business.
a recent report by professors at University of Florida and California State found "irrefutable geographic evidence demonstrating payday lenders are actively and aggressively targeting military personnel across the country."
www.arkansasleader.com zeroes in on "so-called payday lenders" describing them as really "a feeding frenzy around military installations like Little Rock air Force Base".
"They are prevalent wherever low-to-moderate income people live, but military bases are choice targets.
"Credit cards, pawn shops and checking accounts with overdraft protection were cited as more reasonable alternatives to these lenders.
"The payday lenders are attracted to military bases because most of the employees are not well paid, they were assured a regular check and the check wouldn't bounce."
Whopping interest rates of 460 percent a year are being allowed for payday loans.
at those rates, it doesn't take long for the debt to pile up.
Legislators should come up with protecting the needy from the greedy legislation.
It's the kind of debt that leaves military personnel worried, discouraged and even open for bribes. Obvious and numerous opportunities to tempt military folk that are in debt to become spies or worse are available. There's an opening here for the age old "talk to and we'll give you more loans that you never pay back" compromise strategy.
The question that begs an answer should be who and why BNP would want to have storefront payday loan operations kept in the realm of confidentiality.
Plunging military personnel into debt during wartime could be an effective tool for sabotage.
While some are waiting for another terrorist attack, looks like the enemy is capable of taking down Uncle Sam from within, without ever firing a single shot.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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