I'd like to associate myself with LATimes Business Columnist David Lazarus and these remarks on payday loans. Check out his video op-ed and just listen to how he pronounces with disdain the words "payday lenders." He notes how the predatory business practices of this industry undercut savings and is all the more troubling during these tough economic times. He gives a shout out to Sen. Dick Durbin who is poised to reintroduce his bill that would cap the interest that could be charged on consumer loans. In 2006 Congress approved this standard for loans to active members of the military. Here's hoping Congress extends this sensible consumer protection to all Americans.

Check out the end of this story in the Great Falls Tribune about an attempt to regulate the pay day loan business in Montana. After the bill failed to get out of a legislative committee, one backer pledged to take the regulatory proposal to the people in the form of a ballot initiative.

Payday lenders in Ohio, who want to reverse a new state law regulating imposing a 28 percent limit on the interest they may charge, have finally received the go-ahead to collect signatures on a referendum. But the state attorney general is warning that if the referendum should pass, discrepancies between the petition and the law could cause legal confusion. In fact, it appears that if the payday measure passes, two different numerical limits on the interest in such loans would be enshrined in state law.