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Full-Text Articles in Law
Invisible Markets Netting Visible Results: When Sub-Prime Lending Becomes Predatory, Cassandra Jones Havard
Invisible Markets Netting Visible Results: When Sub-Prime Lending Becomes Predatory, Cassandra Jones Havard
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In this article, I argue that Ellison's metaphor of social invisibility—the societal undervaluing of minorities—is analogous to economic invisibility—the denial of fair access to credit to minorities. I then use the metaphor of invisibility as a basis for understanding the contemporary legal problem of predatory lending, or making credit available to borrowers at unreasonably high interest rates. Disguised as credit access to high-risk, underserved borrowers, predatory lending helps to create risk by offering borrowers products that do not adequately measure risk and that are not fairly priced.
African-American Farmers And Fair Lending: Racializing Rural Economic Space, Cassandra Jones Havard
African-American Farmers And Fair Lending: Racializing Rural Economic Space, Cassandra Jones Havard
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This article critiques the federal policy and legislation that makes USDA a financial intermediary designed to give farmers access to credit in light of the federal class action settlement of claims between African-American farmers and USDA. The challenged statutory scheme allows locally elected farmers to make decisions regarding these low-cost loan funds. USDA's approach has both federalist and economic underpinnings. The article identifies the arguments supporting devolution of power from the federal government to local jurisdictions and examines the competing theories of information costs, transaction costs, and agency costs as they relate to USDA as a financial intermediary. Finally, it …