The pundit class routinely laments an American “divide.” Most often the latter is Democrat vs. Republican, but throughout time we’ve also seen labor vs. capital, rich vs. poor, Auburn vs. Alabama, and countless others.
Where it becomes interesting is when theoretical opposites actually work together. In a recent study conducted on the introduction of an interest-rate cap in Illinois, economists J. Brandon Bolen, Gregory Elliehausen, and Thomas Miller wrote about “the small-dollar installment loan industry, which was created a century ago by a collaboration between capitalists and activists who sought to pry loan business away from illegal lenders.” Who were those lenders? Readers can likely imagine they were “loan sharks.” But that’s a digression in a sense.
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