before our eyes and it's being destroyed
because of debt and debt is something
that is incredibly overwhelming for
people poor people have suffered the
most in this crises and until we take
the responsibility of understanding at a
deeper level the economics of the system
how it works we can't change anything it
was attempted William Jennings Bryan
attempted to do it a hundred and ten
years ago and there's a lot of people
now talking about this now whether we're
able to do it or not I don't know but
this system which is a global system now
and Ussery if you if you study how usery
works more interest on usury is going
out of the third-world countries than
aid going in this is just it's it's a
disgusting game and and it really should
end but whether we can end it or not is
is to be seen thank you very much
[Applause]
okay will now take questions from the
audience just just raise your hand if
you like ask the question thank you you
have continued a PSR tradition of
expanding our minds a lot of us own
homes I own a home isn't it fair for
there to be some interest charged on a
loan you know that's an argument that
was Calvin's argument Calvin
John Calvin was the French he was
originally Roman Catholic and then he
gets in trouble in the Inquisition moves
to Switzerland
the bankers actually erected a statue
for him because he's the first one that
legalizes usury in in in Christianity
but he did it by the idea of interest
and interest was originally a between
time if you delayed payment even by
church doctrine you could be charged in
the same way that they charge on credit
cards today if you're delayed that was a
reasoning what interest meant but what
Calvin did is he distinguished between
interest and usury and saw usury as
unjust or exorbitant at that time
anything higher than 12% would have been
considered usury Justinian the roman
emperor considered it 6% anything over
6% most people don't realize that a lot
of people in these pay day things are
paying sometimes 50% interest what the
bankers did is that they studied all of
the states and their interest laws and
they found out that Delaware and North
Dakota did not have interest law caps
and so they they put their operation
city cores in North Dakota not in New
York because there's usury laws in New
York huh
South Dakota sorry yeah South Dakota now
what's interesting is that
in smiley versus Citicorp smiley it's a
case that went to the Supreme Court
because they kept changing the rates on
on his his thing and so he actually
tried to see if he could put an end to
it and and the Supreme Court ruled
against smiley for Citicorp which ended
caps on these they used to charge five
dollars for a late fee now their shows
like $35 $40 the poorer you are the more
they charge even John Calvin who
accepted interest did not accept it for
poor people and what you have to
understand is the people that suffer
most are the poor people because they
get the worst rates and this is usury
you see most of you are probably in the
700s in your FICO score which is what
Fair Isaac that's the company that
determines it great Fair Isaac now one
of the things they don't tell you is
that anytime you miss a payment the
reason it suddenly drops is because they
want to raise your interest rates the
system's rigged against you but one of
the things that they have special files
for celebrities judges wealthy people
they don't do it to them because they
don't want these people to get angry and
make advocates the number one complaints
given to the Fair Business Bureau in the
United States is again is against credit
cards number one complaint people are
suffering out there most people don't
understand compound interest they don't
understand how if you pay the minimum
payment if we paid them the national
debt if we started paying it one dollar
a day it would take two hundred eighty
eight thousand years to finally pay it
off and in reality you could never pay
it off because of the nature of interest
so the point here is is you know
obviously companies have to make money
and things like that
renting money is in in the Islamic
tradition it's absolutely forbidden but
usury has always been even in the Muslim
world there's never been a society that
has been completely freed of interest
but there should be at least just rates
just rates and the people that suffer
most again are the poor people and and
we we should
advocates for these people because these
payday loans and people think these are
pawn brokers and schemers most of these
inner-city payday loans are owned by
Wells Fargo Bank of America seriously
it's just like it's it's like Disney you
know Disney has touchstone for their
racy films because they didn't want to
taint the name of Disney this is a very
sophisticated system and what you have
to realize is it's not that you know
they're all evil and is us and them this
is people that are afflicted with states
of being that are very unhealthy they're
not well and and part of what what what
you know just laws are to regulate
people from their own bad nature