Don't Be Fooled, Rate Caps Don't Protect Borrowers

From Sacramento to Congress, there is an aggressive push afoot across the country to regulate a wide range of consumer loans through an arbitrary rate cap. While proponents of this effort claim it is to protect consumers from so-called “predatory” lenders, there is interesting evidence to suggest that something a bit more sinister might be going on to explain some of the motivation behind this reckless, populist crusade.