According to a story (free reg. req.) in today's Washington Post, the Reverend Al Sharpton is doing ads for Loanmax, an auto title pawn company (my previous blog on predatory title pawn) with 150 offices across the country. The story says Sharpton "considers these loans different from predatory ones because the borrowers have assets (the car) but not the credit rating to get bank loans." That's nonsense. Title lenders are so predatory as to take your entire car, worth $1-2,000 or more, if you owe them as little as a hundred bucks. Just a few years ago, in 1999, Sharpton knew what predatory meant when he correctly opposed the Fleet Bank/BankBoston merger. Here's what he said to a Federal Reserve Board public hearing:

"We want to see loans to those that seek mortgages and business loans that are not at rates that are unbearable and not set up with clauses that are unachievable."