Bank Notes

CompuCredit hires leading NC lobbyist to work with new CFPB: Former North Carolina Attorney General Rufus Edmisten was seen patrolling the hallways at this week’s State AG meeting in Charlotte. Edmisten was among a handful of lobbyists seeking to influence the ongoing work between the new CFPB and the State Attornies General. Interestingly, Edmisten is supposed to be working on behalf of CompuCredit (CCRT). CompuCredit has a number of entities working in subprime lending, either at the level of making loans or through factoring.

Wells Fargo resurrects zombie accounts: Wells Fargo re-opened a closed checking account and proceeded to generate a series of overdrafts after an autopayment put the account in the red. From there, Wells applied a series of new charges. Soon, Wells ran the closed account to a negative balance of $185. Wells referred the account to collections and put the holders on Chex Systems.

Student loan debt will soon reach $1 trillion. The sum of outstanding student loan debt is now approaching that of credit card debt. Student loan debt is now the “anti-dowry.” The news should really provoke people to think twice about the nearly universal faith in the value of a college education. Educators cite differences in average earnings for college graduates, but the numbers are misleading. By lumping the additional earnings of investment bankers and computer programmers with sociology majors, the individual’s true costs and benefits are ignored. Nevermind the possibility that many people will go for only a few semesters before they drop out – thus saddled with debt but not with a degree. Meanwhile, there are shortages of all kinds of workers in skilled trades. Is it really preferable to work as an administrative assistant or as a retail clerk than to have a job as an industrial welder or a commercial pipefitter?