TailsYouLoseVille
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Please see update on my earlier hydroxychloroquine comment at the bottom of the post.
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On Saturday we mentioned that folks might want to think twice about diving into 'deferrals' from the financial services industry, particularly those that pertain to mortgages and credit card balances, in these increasingly difficult COVID-19 times.
And then a reader mentioned that another real problem that folks on the edge can get into, even in virus-free times, is getting involved with PayDay lending industry, especially when said involvement happens repeatedly.
It's not something I'm real familiar with, but someone pointed me towards a really excellent OpEd primmer written by anti-poverty advocate Tom Cooper and published in the Hamilton Spectator.
The entire thing is worth reading, but here is the kicker:
...For those unfamiliar with this type of borrowing, payday loans are time-limited advances and often come with swift approvals and no credit checks. These loans can appeal particularly to part-time and precarious workers who fall into a financial emergency and need quick cash to pay a bill or put food on the table. That description pretty much accounts for millions of Canadians this month thanks to coronavirus shutdowns.
For those workers who fear a paycheque may not be coming in the near future and employment insurance benefits may be weeks away, a payday loan may seem like a desperate, but needed, option to purchase groceries or pay the rent.
But payday loans are a very bad idea, especially right now.
Many consumer advocates compare payday lenders to legalized loan sharks.
While the previous (Ontario) provincial government cut the amount that payday lenders can charge from $21 on $100 to $15 on $100, that still equates to annual interest rate of 391 per cent...
Three hundred and ninety-one percent?
Jeebuz!
How is this kind of usurious egregiousity even legal?
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In case you were wondering...The permissible annual 'rate' in British Columbia is also 391%.
Speaking of COVID-19... I have not been commenting on this stuff from a scientific point of view because it is not my field....However, regarding the two early 'clinical' trials for hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin from the same French group that many folks are talking about, it is hard to argue with Derek Lowe and David Gorski that a significant issue is the very basic fact that both studies lack a control group.
Update, April 1st....A new, not yet peer-reviewed study reporting on a small scale trial in China suggests some efficacy for hydroxychloroquine when given to patients with mild symptoms..Importantly, at first glance, this one does have a control group...Here's the NYT report...Here is the study itself.
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3 comments:
On the $ side of things: if you have gym membership, or other reccuring monthly expense that is covid closed - you should probably look and see if the business is still taking its monthly due from you.
PS: thank you for the control group comment.
I looked at an online mortgage calculator, for example:
Loan of $500,000
$50,000 down payment
3% interest rate
25 year mortgage
monthly payment is $2,100
total interest paid is about $190,000, which is $7,600 per year.
Good point about all that monthly stuff you may not be using Anon-At-The-Top.
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Thanks for that Hugh.
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