The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed new rules to crackdown on payday loans, an industry that is built on the morally fraudulent goal of exploiting desperate, and mostly poor, people. Reuters has the story. And our friends at JubileeUSA have been active on this issue, as well as working on the Puerto Rico debt crisis. In March, they called attention to a report that indicated, among other things, that there are now more payday loan centers in Florida than there are Starbucks.
At RealClearPolitics, Peter Berkowitz advocates for moderation as necessary to the good functioning of a democracy. I could have done without the opening, which falsely suggests moral equivalency between the campaigns of the three candidates for the presidency, and I quibble with the idea that the Constitutional Convention "saved the Union" when there was not yet a union to be saved, and really would not be until the Civil War. Nonetheless, a fine essay on a theme that can't be emphasized too often in these days of hyper-ventilation.
At HuffPost, David Harris on the need to remember history when evaluating the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially the history of the 1967 War. Harris' essay is not as evenhanded as it could be, to be sure, but it is a useful tonic to those who wish to portray always Israel as the bad guy.
In the Notre Dame Magazine, Fr. Joe Corpora, CSC, writes about the parable of the prodigal. Corpora is one of the missionaries of mercy for the Jubilee Year and his thoughts, beginning with a recollection of a profound comment from Dom Helder Camara, are commended for prayerful reflection to all.
