Daddy Warbucks

Daddy Warbucks
Bye, Bye, payday lenders – Don’t Come Back
It looks, finally, like the State of Arkansas, is getting rid of the predatory payday lenders.You know, all those storefront operations offering to loan you a couple of hundred against your next paycheck. The all to friendly, smiling lenders with loans that often have hidden interest and fess and give a hand up those hard up already, to help them on their road to bankruptcy. Hopefully soon those places will just be vacant storefronts.
A coalition opposing payday lenders announced recently that another 65 of the lenders have stopped making loans, bringing the total number in the state to 33 in October from a high of 237 back in March. That’s an 86 percent decline. Good. Good for business and better for the poor people who went to those outlets thinking they could get a helpful payday advance in a cash crunch. Helpful it wasn’t. All they got was high interest, high fees and further in debt.
Later this month the Arkansas Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case that will likely determine the constitutionality of the check-cashiers act, the 1999 law designed to provide payday lenders legal cover to operate in the state. Let’s all hope the Arkansas Supreme Court rules heavily against these lenders. We have had less than adequate protection against these firms in the past from some former elected state politicians. Let’s hope the courts rule firmly on this matter. Kudos to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel who back in March, ordered all 156 payday lenders licensed and regulated by the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies to stop making loans. Following McDaniel’s order, 101 of the 156 stopped making loans.

BIG QUESTION: What percentage of men whose wives do not work outside the home, really wish they did? Answer at the end of this column.

MONKEY WINE
The 2006 Willmon Vineyards’ “Quatro” Meritage is now available and despite the New Mexico grapes, the bottle has a Fayetteville flavor. One of artist Donald Roller Wilson’s signature babes, Cookie, is on the label. If ya want some, email scott@winesofnewmexico.com.

HURRICANE HURTS
Wal-Mart says hurricanes hurt its September numbers, causing same-store sales to miss analyst expectations. Wal-Mart said hurricanes caused 341 stores to temporarily close with sales rising only rose 2.4 percent.

DILLARD’S DOWN
Dillard’s said that September same-store sales tumbled 12 percent as hurricanes Gustav and Ike disrupted operations at several of its stores. .

AWA CLOSES
Athletic World Advertising is now closed and lawsuits have been filed to collect outstanding debits. The once successful AWA provided posters, magnets and schedules to high school and college athletic departments across the country and employed about 125 people..

FOUR TO HALL
A quartet of Arkansas business giants will be inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2009. Jim Earl Yates of Nashville, founder of the E-Z Mart chain; Chelsey Pruet of El Dorado, founder of Pruet Drilling Co.; Raymond Rebsamen of Little Rock, founder of Rebsamen Insurance; and Willis Shaw of Elm Springs, founder of trucking company Willis Shaw Express, will all be honored. Although the Hall of Fame banquet will be in Little Rock, it’s actually headquartered in the Sam M. Walton College of Business on the UA-Fayetteville campus.

HOW LOW
Once the barometer of the stock market — General Motors and Ford Motor Company, hit their lowest levels in almost 60 years recently. Oh, my.

BIG ANSWER: Some 40 percent of men whose wives don’t work outside the home, wished they did.