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      In America’s ‘Voltage Valley’, hopes of car-making revival turn sour

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      When Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, declared bankruptcy last month, it was the latest blow to a region that has seen decades of extravagant promises fail to deliver.The 5,000 new jobs executives vowed to create in 2020 generated fresh hope for the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, which once functioned as an economic engine for the area and a critical piece of the nation’s industrial heartland.Local leaders rebranded Mahoning Valley “Voltage Valley”, claiming the EV revolution would revive the region’s fortunes. Donald Trump, then the president, trumpeted a major victory. “The area was devastated when General Motors moved out,” he said. “It’s incredible what’s happened in the area. It’s booming now. It’s absolutely booming.”But Lordstown Motors’ failure and its decision to sue its major investor, the electronics giant Foxconn, over a soured investment partnership, have dented Voltage Valley’s fortunes. Years of similar failures have given some residents here “savior fatigue” and have largely given up hope that the Lordstown plant can ever be fully rebooted.“I really want the plant to do well and succeed, but we’ve experienced so many ‘Hey we’re gonna come in and save the day’ promises that never happen,” said David Green, the regional director of United Auto Workers (UAW), who started working at Lordstown in 1995.Green said he was especially skeptical of Foxconn. The company has put up nets to prevent workers fromkilling themselves at one of its Chinese plants, he said, and has failed to live up to other promises of job creation across the US: “This is the savior company? I don’t have warm feelings toward them.”Still, some local leaders are optimistic. They insist Foxconn, which is attempting to scale up autonomous tractor production at Lordstown and lure a different EV startup, will save the plant.“I think Foxconn will be successful,” said Lordstown’s mayor, Arno Hill. “They are fairly confident they are going to be here for a while.”Hill and other leaders said Lordstown Motors was not the only new employer in town. GM partnered with LG Corporation to build an EV battery plant that employs about 1,300 people next door to Lordstown, and a new TJX warehouse has hired about 1,000 workers. A new industrial park is planned in the region, as are two gas plants.The feelings of those not in the business of promoting the region are more nuanced. In nearby Warren, where many Lordstown employees have lived since GM originally opened the plant in 1966 opening, mentions of Foxconn saving Lordstown or the Mahoning Valley drew a mix of eye-rolls, scoffs and blank looks from residents in the city’s downtown.“There are words, but I have seen no action,” said Leslie Dunlap, owner of the FattyCakes Soap Company, and several other Warren businesses, as she worked at a farmers’ market. “People here have lost faith in big companies.”Warren’s fortune is tied to that of the plant – when the latter’s employment numbers dipped, “people stopped spending money here, started selling houses, walking away from properties,” Dunlap said.Residents on a recent Tuesday afternoon said they were “cautiously optimistic” about the region’s economic future. Warren’s downtown shopfronts are full. But the city also bears the scars of rust belt decline with vacant industrial buildings and blighted neighborhoods.A few miles down the road at Lordstown, the lots around the well-kept offices where a few hundred Foxconn employees work are repaved. But the rest of the 6.2m sq ft factory looks like a depressing relic. Weeds sprout from the cracked pavement of the vast, unused blacktop lots surrounding it.Lordstown employed 11,000 people at its peak, but between the mid-1990s and 2016, the workforce in Trumbull county, where Lordstown sits, dropped by 63%. Just a few thousand remained when Lordstown closed in 2018.Some still hold a shred of hope that GM will repurchase the plant – it is nextdoor to an EV battery factory, and batteries are expensive to ship. It makes sense, said Josh Ayers, the bargaining chairman for UAW 1112.“I have a pit in my stomach every time I drive past Lordstown,” he said. “Foxconn is in there but I don’t see a future for them.”Regardless of the plant’s potential, local labor leaders say they have largely moved on and trained their attention on GM’s nearby Ultium electric-vehicle plant. A small explosion, fires and chemical leaks at the plant recently injured employees who work there, for as little as $16 per hour – less than the amount the local Waffle House offers, and low enough that some employees need government assistance, Ayers noted.Some local leaders tout the region’s job openings. Ayers said they exist because turnover is high. “People used to run through walls to work at Lordstown,” he said. “Nobody is running through walls to work at Ultium.”It is not the first time that a politician’s promises have left locals disappointed.‘This plant is about to shift into high gear’As the Great Recession battered the nation in late 2009, Barack Obama traveled to General Motors’ mammoth Lordstown plant to promise laid-off autoworkers a brighter future.Obama’s 2009 GM bailout became a lifeline: ramping up production of the Chevrolet Cobalt would bring back over 1,000 workers, the president told the anxious crowd.“Because of the steps we have taken, this plant is about to shift into high gear,” Obama bellowed over loud cheers. The plan soon fizzled, however, and by 2019 GM had shed the plant’s workforce and sold it to Lordstown Motors.In 2014 Obama declared Youngstown the center for 3D-printing technology, though the industry has brought few jobs. The failure to revive the area, in part, helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.Mahoning Valley was once steel country, and residents here trace their economic troubles back to 1977’s Black Monday, when two steel plants abruptly closed and 5,000 workers lost their jobs. Since then, the promises to pull the region out of its slow tailspin have been plentiful.An eccentric businessman from nearby Youngstown briefly revived the Avanti car company until slow sales and poor management killed it by 1990, leaving its workforce jobless.A glass company that recently received tax incentives to build a large plant “never made one fuckin’ bottle”, UAW’s Green said.Perhaps most infamously, Trump, in a July 2017 Youngstown speech, promised residents auto jobs “are all coming back. Don’t move, don’t sell your house.” A year later, GM idled the plant and, as residents here are keen to highlight, it did so after receiving billions in taxpayer assistance, including $60m in state subsidies in exchange for a promise to keep the plant open through 2027.In 2019, Trump tweeted that he had been “working nicely with GM to get” the Lordstown deal done. But Lordstown Motors floundered almost from the start, suffering from scandals over inflated sales figures and battery range. By 2022, a new savior arrived: Foxconn. It agreed to buy the plant and a 55% stake in Lordstown Motors for $230m. That relationship soured, and Foxconn quit making the payments this year. The deal collapsed.In a sign of how little impact this “booming” transformation has had, the name “Foxconn” hardly registered with some Warren residents. They squinted as they tried to recall where they had heard it. Others pointed to other ventures they felt could have more impact – a proposed science-fiction museum and businesses at the farmers’ market.Outside the county courthouse, an employee who did not want their name printed said they knew of the Lordstown Motors collapse, but it was not top of mind for anyone they knew: “Lordstown is not where the money is. I don’t know where it’s at.”‘Foxconn didn’t come through’About 450 miles from Lordstown, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, Foxconn in 2017 promised to build a hi-tech factory campus that would employ 13,000 people in exchange for $4.5bn in tax incentives. Residents were forced from their homes to make way for the factory, but very little was built.Kelly Gallaher is among those who fought the project, and she sees a replay in Lordstown as Foxconn promises big things while its deal falls apart. Mount Pleasant residents tried to warn Lordstown on social media when Foxconn showed interest in the plant, she said.“Lordstown needed a savior angel, and they weren’t in a position with any other backup choices. But it isn’t a surprise that Foxconn didn’t come through,” Gallaher said.Guy Coviello, the chief executive of the Youngstown/Warren Chamber of Commerce, dismissed such concerns. Foxconn is not asking for incentives or making big promises, he said, claiming that the problems in Wisconsin were largely “political ballyhooing”.The idea that autonomous tractors will save Lordstown is not landing with many residents. But one thing everyone around Lordstown seems to agree on is the notion that the region’s manufacturing heyday is never returning – for no other reason than automation has made it impossible. Manufacturers simply don’t need the labor force they once did.Mahoning still has much to offer. Its population loss is stabilizing, the cost of living is low, it is near other major population centers and it offers a huge workforce, Ayers said.Those selling points may bring more investment. But after so many broken promises, any floated idea is met with skepticism. Reflecting on Obama’s speech, Green said the president’s reassurance was a “great feeling that day”.“What a stark contrast to 10 years later.” More

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      in US Politics

      ‘Bidenomics’ is a business opportunity. But who can cash in?

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      This past week Joe Biden gave a speech in which he touted his economic policies and, rather than deflecting, he leaned into what many of his opponents called “Bidenomics”.Bidenomics is the opposite of “trickle-down” theory, which holds that tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations ultimately find their way to the rest of the population through more spending and investment. For the president and his supporters, Bidenomics means government spending and investment in infrastructure and services that create jobs and growth.“I didn’t come up with the name, I really didn’t,” he said in his remarks. “I now claim it.”If you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur a president’s economic policies – assuming they can get congressional support – really do matter. This is not to claim that Biden’s economic agenda will be any more or less successful than his predecessors’: for many the trickle-down v spending debate will never be resolved. But when a president sets an agenda it reveals where money will be spent. And my smartest, most experienced clients are watching closely. Why? Because regardless of where they stand politically, what’s best for their business is always, always, always to follow the money.They know that when you own a business your job is to create value and build an organization that provides a livelihood for all the people that rely on you. This includes your customers, your suppliers, your partners and of course your employee and their families, as well as your family. Which means that you put politics aside (until it’s time to cast your vote) and instead you follow the money. Get it?So where is the Bidenomics money going?For starters, there’s almost $300bn going towards building chip manufacturing plants under the 2022 Chips Act. There’s also another $391bn that’s being spent on companies that are improving their energy efficiency and making greener products under the Inflation Reduction Act. A trillion dollars is being expended on roads, buildings and other infrastructure projects thanks to the 2021 Infrastructure Act. That’s about $1.7tn, which is a lot of money. The president is also telling us that more will be spent on affordable healthcare, social services and education.That’s where the money’s going over the next few years and even more will be spent if he wins re-election in 2024. When it comes to your business, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with these policies. What matters is that you take advantage of them for the benefit of your business. So how are my clients doing this?If you want to sell products and services to the chip manufacturers and other players in the industry (and the most active ones – like Intel, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and Skywater Technologies – are already in line for the funding) then target these companies and their projects and consider what products and services of yours can be sold to them. Or you can do your research, identify opportunities and start filling out applications at places like the Department of Commerce’s Chips.gov, or at Chips Act which is a private organization that provides support for businesses looking for help writing grants and submitting proposals. Or you can go directly to the Semiconductor Industry Association or read the excellent guidance provided by Semi, an organization that supports companies in the electronic manufacturing and supply chain industries.If you want to get funding for energy-efficient projects or to help develop energy efficient products you should start with the White House Inflation Reduction Act Guidebook which lists dozens of government agencies that are doling out money to organizations of all sizes for just that purpose. The Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains has $6bn available for projects and, wow, you can’t get any more government-sounding than that, right? Or if you merely want to maximize your use of the expanded tax credits under the legislation visit the IRS’s Inflation Reduction Act web area.Maybe you want to get in on the $1tn infrastructure spending? The White House, Federal Highway Administration, Department of Energy and Department of Commerce all have funding opportunities related to the 2021 legislation.Follow the money. Start at any of the places I’ve mentioned above and get ready to go down the Federal Rabbit Hole.Finding this money, let alone applying, isn’t easy. Which is why many of my clients don’t do this. They’re lazy. My best clients – and I have a handful – have already hired summer interns whose jobs are to peruse the maze of government bureaucracy, identify opportunities and start filling out forms. Doing this takes time, effort, tenacity. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.Even if you’re not in the construction industry you can still leverage Bidenomics. That’s because all of the companies that are getting funding will need your products or services. Chip manufacturing plants will have employees that eat pizza. Highways have buildings that need to be cleaned. “Green” products need to be transported. People in these industries getting all that money will need accountants, lawyers, architects, marketing professionals and workplace consultants.Bidenomics. Obamacare. Supply side. Trickle down. These are just words. Political phrases to create headlines and catch the attention of voters. Smart business owners know this. They don’t get distracted by these terms. And they don’t let their politics muddle their strategies. What they do is follow the money. And my best clients have taught me that whether you’re a fan of Biden’s – or any president’s economic policies – there’s always plenty of money and opportunities to pursue if you just follow the money. More

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      in US Politics

      As the US becomes more divided, companies find they can’t appeal to everyone

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      Bud Light, Target – and now Cracker Barrel? “We take no pleasure in reporting that @CrackBarrel has fallen,” the conservative group Texas Family said in a tweet last Thursday, in response to the southern-food restaurant chain marking Pride month on social media. “A once family-friendly establishment has caved to the mob.”The conservative backlash against American brands appears to have reached new heights over the last few weeks as companies show their support for Pride month and other LGBTQ+ issues. It is part of a wider backlash against corporate involvement in social, environmental or political issues that appears to be gathering steam.Corporate celebration of Pride month over recent years has seemed less radical amid growing criticism that parades and other events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights have actually become too corporatized. Critics have also pointed out that those same businesses are more than happy to fund politicians that oppose LGBTQ+ rights when it suits them. But conservatives have put those sponsorships back in the spotlight and are now more emboldened than ever to turn their fury against them.At the political vanguard is Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, the presidential candidate who is in the middle of a legal battle with Disney after the company publicly criticized his “don’t say gay” bill to curb discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.But the attack on “woke” corporations from conservative consumers and the politicians who court their support goes far further than Pride.Multiple Republican states, including Texas, West Virginia and Florida, have divested from investment firm BlackRock for the company’s support of environmental, social and governance portfolios that focus on sustainability and environmental impact.It is a notable change for Republicans, who for decades have been the party of business and fought the idea of government interference. Their hero, Ronald Reagan, once said “man is not free unless government is limited”.But a shift has been happening. Since 2019, the percentage of Republicans who say large corporations have a positive impact has fallen by a quarter, according to a 2021 Pew poll. A Gallup poll showed a similar drop in Republicans who were happy with the “size and influence of major corporations”, dropping from 57% to 31% in a year.Much of this comes from conservative distaste of “woke capitalism”, with companies coming out in support of progressive issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights, racial equity and concern over the environment, over the last decade. The shift has a strong business case. Younger Americans, who are more diverse and also more liberal, have come of age as consumers and companies have been trying to cater to them by promoting issues they care about. That comes with a price.“Millennials and younger generations are pushing this, and they have the idea that companies have a social responsibility beyond their business,” said Amna Kirmani, a professor of marketing at the University of Maryland. “Conservatives think that companies should stay out of sociopolitical issues and instead focus on their business.”In other words, companies can’t appeal to everyone in such a divisive political landscape, as they are quickly finding out. Now that two major corporations have pulled back on marketing efforts that promote LGBTQ+ issues in the face of a rightwing backlash, some experts say conservative resolve against companies promoting the issues has been strengthened.Bud Light had been trying to revive its brand to appeal to younger Americans when it turned to TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman, for a sponsored post on social media.“Our number one job at Bud Light is to grow meaning and relevance with new drinkers – that is how we transform and really preserve this brand for the next 40 years,” Alissa Heinerscheid, the company’s vice-president of marketing, told Ad Age in September.The backlash to the brand’s partnership with Mulvaney was intense, eventually leading to sales in Bud Light dropping by at least 23% compared to last year.Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, put Heinerscheid and another marketing executive on leave. Brendan Whitworth, chief executive of Anheuser-Busch inBev, said in a statement in April amid the boycott that the brand “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together.”Just a few weeks later, Target announced it would remove some of its Pride month merchandise from some of its stores after a series of “volatile circumstances” in which a handful of customers confronted workers and damaged displays in stores.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“It has really emboldened a lot of conservative activists to keep shouting because in these two cases, there were serious consequences,” Kirmani said. “Boycotts happen all the time, most of them are not successful.”The ire against Bud Light and Target quickly spread to Kohl’s, which received bomb threats for displaying Pride month merchandise, and Chick-fil-A, which had hired an executive to lead diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the company. The attack on Chick-fil-A surprised many given the company’s long history of supporting rightwing causes. Backlashes also pointed to Nike, North Face, the US navy and the LA Dodgers baseball team for social media posts and campaigns that celebrated Pride month.Eric Bloem, vice-president of programs and corporate advocacy at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said that it stresses to companies that they need to be prepared to defend their values when faced with attacks. Nike and North Face, he pointed out, stood by their decision to work with transgender models (Nike had worked with Mulvaney) after they faced backlash. Meanwhile, Bud Light and Target backed off.“The message that it sends is that it fuels extremist behavior … and that they can make Pride toxic. Once they are able to make Pride toxic for one company, they’re going to move on to the next,” Bloem said.Both Kirmani and Bloem said the conservative backlash against companies comes from a minority of people with extreme views. A survey from the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Glaad showed that 75% of participants said they are comfortable seeing LGBTQ+ people in advertising.“Let’s be clear that this is a coordinated attack against the LGBTQ+ community by a small group of extremists,” Bloem said. “There’s over 525 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation that have been pushed at the state level. These pieces of legislation are banning books, access to gender-affirming care for youth, they’re preventing trans youth from participating in sports. All of this is part of the larger context.”The wider context also suggests this fight isn’t going to end soon. The attacks on Target and Bud Light had real impact and DeSantis is not the only 2024 Republican presidential runner taking on “woke” corporations.Outlier candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old tech entrepreneur, has made his fight against corporate liberalism the centerpiece of his campaign. He is positioning his company, Strive Asset Management, as an alternative to investment firms like BlackRock.Ramaswamy may not be a frontrunner but he is gaining airtime and his message has the support of Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy and others. His views may be out of touch with younger voters, and many other Americans, but it’s one that captures an angry base that has found a cause to fight for. “Courage Is Contagious” is Ramaswamy’s campaign slogan. As corporate America is finding out, it is also going to be contentious. More

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      in US Politics

      George Soros hands control of multi-billion foundation to son

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      The financier George Soros, the billionaire investor and liberal donor, has handed control of his multi-billion-dollar foundation to his son, Alexander.The 92-year-old, who memorably made $1bn betting against the British pound and “breaking the Bank of England” in a catastrophic financial event in 1992 that became known as Black Wednesday, had said previously that he did not want his Open Society Foundations (OSF) to be taken over by any of his five children.However, Soros has now named his son Alexander as chairman of one of the wealthiest global philanthropic foundations. “He’s earned it,” said Soros, whose personal fortune is valued at $6.7bn.The 37-year-old, who was quietly appointed in December, said he was “more political” than his father and that he planned to continue donating family money to left-leaning US political candidates, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.His father has been one of the biggest donors to Democratic candidates in US politics.“We are going to double down on defending voting rights and personal freedom at home and supporting the cause of democracy abroad,” said Alexander. “As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it too.”Alexander, who earlier this week tweeted a picture of himself posing with the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, now directs political activity as president of his father’s political action committee.The foundation, of which Alexander has been deputy chair since 2017, directs about $1.5bn a year to groups such as those backing human rights and helping to build democracies.Alexander, who studied history at New York University and earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, has pursued his own initiatives including backing progressive Jewish organisations, environmental causes and workers’ rights in the US.He also sits on the investment committee of the foundation that oversees Soros Fund Management (OSF), with the vast majority of the $25bn in assets under management belonging to the OSF. The OSF received $18bn from his father in 2018.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“With my background, there are a lot of ways I could have gone astray,” said Alexander. “Instead I became a workaholic, and my life is my work.”George Soros has married three times and has five children: Alexander, Andrea, Gregory, Robert and Jonathan. More

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      in UK Politics

      Government to scrap windfall tax if energy prices drop

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      For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Rishi Sunak’s government has vowed to end the windfall tax on oil and gas companies if prices continue to fall, in a move branded “premature” while millions across […] More

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      in US Politics

      ‘It left me with nothing’: the debt trap of payday loans

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      Meka Armstrong of Detroit, Michigan, has struggled in a cycle of debt from payday loans for years. She first took out a payday loan in 2010 to cover the costs of medication she needs as she is disabled and lives with lupus.“Worst decision I ever made,” said Armstrong. “The interest rate was 49% and I thought I would get my medications and pay the money back, but when I paid the money back, it left me with nothing. That’s how they get you. I, unfortunately, started the payday nightmare, and you can’t get out of the loop.”Armstrong is just one of the 12 million Americans who take out payday loans annually in the states where payday lending is not prohibited, shelling out up to $9.8bn in fees to payday lenders every year. The industry targets Black borrowers such as Armstrong, and Latinos, who are more likely to have lower credit scores and be unbanked compared with their white counterparts.A payday loan is a short-term, high-cost loan typically due on an individual’s next payday. But the payday industry thrives and depends on borrowers who take out numerous loans and face exorbitant fees and interest rates when they can’t keep up. Payday lenders collect 75% of their fees from borrowers who take out 10 or more loans a year, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.The average payday loan customer has an annual income of about $30,000 and four in five payday loans are rolled over or renewed. The average payday borrower stays in debt for five months, paying $520 in fees to borrow $375 on average. The majority of borrowers, seven out of 10, take out payday loans to pay rent, utilities or other basic expenses.It took Armstrong years to get out of the debt cycle, which she said was difficult because the payday lenders have borrowers’ bank account information, can sue them and even threaten them with jail time for nonpayment.During the Covid pandemic, Armstrong had to take out another payday loan, even though she had previously experienced the debt trap and the consequences of doing so, because she caught Covid in 2020 and was sick.“It’s embarrassing because I know how predatory they are, but I had Covid-19 for 98 days, almost died, my whole house was sick and we were behind on bills,” she added. “I’m still in the payday nightmare because of that desperation unfortunately.”The US has a poor record when it comes to regulating payday lenders. Currently 20 states and Washington DC have enacted rate caps of 36% annually or less to rein in the cycle of debt that traps consumers who take on payday loans, aligning these states with the federal Military Lending Act passed during the George W Bush administration that capped annual interest rates on consumer loans for active duty military at 36%.In states without caps, the average annual interest rate for payday loans is about 400% and as high as 664%.“The debt trap is very much by design and it’s how payday lenders’ business model works,” said Yasmin Farahi, deputy director of state policy and senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. “They succeed by making sure their customers fail. They target low-income communities and communities of color, and it’s a model that’s based on their customers failing, essentially, for them to stay in business and generate fees.”In Minnesota, the state legislature recently passed a law to cap interest rates on payday loans to 36% annually, from average annual interest rates in the state of 220% in 2022.Opponents to the legislation claimed the cap would deter lenders from doing business in Minnesota, though advocates have countered that this has not been the case in states where similar legislation has already been enacted.“It’s meant to be a continuous cycle,” said a payday loan recipient in Minnesota who requested anonymity. “You end up having an emergency, and then you think that, OK, I can pay this off, it’ll be a one-time thing and that’ll be that, but then your next paycheck comes, and it comes out of your bank account automatically and then you’re essentially just back where you started. So then you have to take the same loan out, basically the same day that you pay it off. And it just keeps going and going and going every payday.”Anne Leland Clark, the executive director of Exodus Lending in Minnesota, supported the cap. The legislation was split across partisan lines with Democrats introducing and supporting the bill though polling across political lines showed 79% of Minnesotans supporting a 36% or lower interest rate cap.Prior to Democrats in Minnesota winning a trifecta majority in the state government in November 2022, efforts were made at the local level to enact interest rate caps.“No longer will people be turning and getting into debt traps, or balloon payments, where their ability to repay is not accounted for,” said Clark.She noted a provision was added to the legislation that would permit lenders to charge 50% annual interest rates as long as they report doing so, but Clark noted her organization will be monitoring to see how lenders utilize the provision.“When you crowd out the predators, people are going to turn to and find the more responsible lenders and the more responsible lenders are going to license in your state,” Clark added.Jason Ward, a bankruptcy lawyer in South Carolina, where payday lending is permitted and unregulated, said over half of his clients filing for bankruptcy have at least one payday loan.The average annual interest rate for a payday loan in South Carolina is 385 %.“The interest numbers are so high that I honestly don’t believe the payday loan companies even intend to get paid back,” said Ward.He said many of his clients take out the loans out of desperation to cover basic expenses and that desperation is taken advantage of by payday lenders who know many clients will accept loans with exorbitant terms because they are just focusing on trying to survive at the present.“When you weigh how desperate somebody can be with what’s being offered, you get the sense that it can be predatory,” Ward said. “I don’t think people understand the desperation of a lot of people’s situations.” More

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      in UK Politics

      Economists dismiss Tory push to scrap inheritance tax

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      For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Calls by senior Tories to abolish inheritance tax (IHT) have been met with scepticism from senior economists and tax experts. More than 50 Conservative MPs, including former chancellor […] More