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Author Fleming, Anne, 1979- author.

Title City of debtors : a century of fringe finance / Anne Fleming
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018
©2018

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Description 1 online resource (367 pages)
Contents Lending in the shadow of the law -- From loan sharks to licensed lenders -- New threats to an old deal -- Bringing sales finance under law -- The problem of the food freezer plan -- Due process in debt collection -- Financial federalism
Summary Since the rise of the small-sum lending industry in the 1890s, people on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder in the United States have been asked to pay the greatest price for credit. Again and again, Americans have asked why the most fragile borrowers face the highest costs for access to the smallest loans. To protect low-wage workers in need of credit, reformers have repeatedly turned to law, only to face the vexing question of where to draw the line between necessary protection and overreaching paternalism. City of Debtors shows how each generation of Americans has tackled the problem of fringe finance, using law to redefine the meaning of justice within capitalism for those on the economic margins. Anne Fleming tells the story of the small-sum lending industry's growth and regulation from the ground up, following the people who navigated the market for small loans and those who shaped its development at the state and local level. Fleming's focus on the city and state of New York, which served as incubators for numerous lending reforms that later spread throughout the nation, differentiates her approach from work that has centered on federal regulation. It also reveals the overlooked challenges of governing a modern financial industry within a federalist framework. Fleming's detailed work contributes to the broader and ongoing debate about the meaning of justice within capitalistic societies, by exploring the fault line in the landscape of capitalism where poverty, the welfare state, and consumer credit converge.-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Credit control -- New York (State) -- New York -- History
Credit control -- Law and legislation -- New York (State) -- New York -- History
Predatory lending -- New York (State) -- New York -- History
Predatory lending -- Law and legislation -- New York (State) -- New York -- History
Usury laws -- New York (State) -- New York
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Finance.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Banks & Banking.
Usury laws
Predatory lending -- Law and legislation
Predatory lending
Credit control -- Law and legislation
Credit control
New York (State) -- New York
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780674982048
0674982045
Other Titles Century of fringe finance