October
2017
15
New Economy Project undertook this report, at the request of AARP, to examine barriers to economic security faced by 50+ New Yorkers of color, including immigrants. The analysis focuses on economic justice disparities statewide and in New York City, with attention also given to Long Island and Buffalo.
October
2017
5
NBC News — Our Campaigns Director Andy Morrison talks to NBC’s I-Team about New York State and City’s investments in companies whose predatory loans are illegal in New York.
June
2017
9
Gothamist — Payday loans are a poverty trap, a way to get the poor and desperate locked into a cycle of debt that traps them under an ever-increasing pile of high interest loans that they can’t pay back. Because of their nefarious nature, New York and 14 other states have banned such loans.
June
2017
1
Road to City Hall — New Economy Project’s Sarah Ludwig and Deyanira Del Rio discuss a new proposal in Albany that threatens NYS’ protections against exploitative lending.
May
2017
25
This bill would allow check cashers to partner with out-of-state and nationally-chartered banks to facilitate loans in excess of New York’s usury laws.
May
2017
23
The bill would blast a hole in our vital state usury laws, which serve as a crucial bulwark against high-cost and predatory lending. The bill would jeopardize financial security for struggling New Yorkers, particularly low-income immigrants and people of color.
May
2017
22
We are extremely concerned about new attempts to undermine our state’s strong consumer protection laws – this time by online lenders that seek to circumvent or diminish our state’s usury laws, firmly on New York’s books since colonial days. We see a clear need for increased consumer protections in the online lending space, and to counter misrepresentations made by industry members as they press legislators for less regulatory oversight and enforcement. We approach the hearing topic today, in terms of the implications of online lending for economic and racial justice, and for equitable community development.
April
2017
3
Thomas J. Curry has only one week left as Comptroller of the Currency. But America’s chief regulator of national banks isn’t acting like it. Despite intense opposition from community advocates and conservatives alike, Curry, an Obama appointee, is doubling down on an ill-advised plan that would allow online lenders and other so-called fintech firms to rip people off.
March
2017
23
WBAI’s Morning Show — Our Campaigns Coordinator Andy Morrison talks to WBAI’s Morning Show about recent threats to worker and economic justice in New York and beyond.
February
2017
10
Daily News — Last Friday, hours before signing an executive order that put the Dodd-Frank financial reform law on the chopping block, President Trump name-checked Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “There’s nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie,” he said.
Translation: there’s no one better than Dimon to help gut Dodd-Frank.