Posts Tagged: loan

Opinion

Needed: Protecting small businesses from predatory lending

A loan document package ready to be signed. (Photo: nik93737 via Shutterstock)

OPINION: “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy.” We hear this all the time from elected officials, but the data show it’s much more than a political platitude. California’s four million small businesses employ 50% of the state’s private sector workforce, and accounted for two-thirds of job creation over the last seven years. They lifted us out of the Great Recession. But small business owners still grapple with acute challenges, particularly access to affordable credit.

Opinion

Loan rate-cap bill would harm consumers

A loan document ready to be signed. (Photo: Lane V. Erickson, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The California Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday on a bill that caps consumer loan rates and threatens to sever a vital credit lifeline for many. Oddly, three commercial lenders who offer the kind of loans subject to this regulation support it.Assembly Bill 539 would cap the interest rate at 36% plus the federal funds rate on loans of more than $2,500 but less than $10,000.

News

Stockton out of bankruptcy, but pension legacy uncertain

A seal of the city of Stockton, Calf. (Photo: Astudio, via Shutterstock)

On the day that Stockton emerged from bankruptcy last week, ending 32 months of debt protection, the final court argument was about the “cram down” imposed on the only creditor that did not cut a deal.

News

GOP lawmakers want bullet train derailed

Assembly Republicans

California Republicans, long opposed to the $68 billion high-speed rail plan backed by Gov. Brown, say it’s time to dump the bullet train and spend money instead on critical transportation infrastructure. “I think people are tired of the train and tired of waiting for the train,” Assembly GOP Leader Connie Conway of Tulare, accompanied by Republican lawmakers, told reporters. “They’re standing at the train stop and the train is not coming.” (Photo: Staff, Assemblymember Eric Linder)

News

Brown taps cap-and-trade money

Gov. Brown’s rewritten budget borrows $500 million from California’s cap-and-trade auctions and diverts the money for use in other state programs – a move that drew immediate fire from clean-air advocates.

 

The administration said the $500 million represents a one-time loan and will be paid back, with interest. Tapping the money was proper, the

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