Anyone here remember Usury Laws?

I remember in early seventies Nixon did away with Usury Laws but I can't remember the justification given for doing so. Anyone remember how they justified eleminating these laws?

I was a little young when Nixon was prez so I don't know what the excuse was then.

Market forces was the excuse perpetrated by the repukes for lifting credit card rate ceilings and other rate ceilings in the 80's and 90's so I'm guessing it was the same in with Nixon.

The removal of the usury laws signaled the beginning of the enslavement of the American people, have no doubt about that.

Deregulation my ass .....

but can't remember the reasoning in doing so.

a bank would give you 17 % on a mid-term CD. They would have to charge more interest than that when they loaned the money out or they'd go under. Maybe it was just the market forces of the inflation we had that made the 10% number impossible to hold.

What Nixon did was go off the gold standard, as a capital control, which meant that banks were literally free to create mo' money through interest.

Usury is the act of overcharging interest rates. It was set at ten percent throughout the sixties. No one could charge more than ten percent interest. I don't understand how going off the gold standard would change the Usury Laws on the books. I remember when we left the gold standard but I didn't associate it to Usury Laws.

Carter lifting that off credit cards.

The Usury Laws said no one could charge more than ten percent, period. It was during Nixon's term that they were done away with. I just don't remember what justification was used.

I think...could be wrong though..

That's the year Nixon repealed the laws that capped interest rates.

:shrug:

I found a few tidbits:

There are claims that the 1968 students’ revolt, which almost led to the President, General de Gaulle, being overthrown, were encouraged by US operatives intent on forcing France to hold on to its excess dollars. Be that as it may, the redemption of dollars for US held gold continued – until, on 15 August 1971, the then U.S. President, Richard Nixon, delinked dollars from gold to stop the flow.

But at one time rates couldn't go over the fed usury limits even if the state allowed. The stricter rules applied. I don't know where the fed laws stand but they are pretty loose. With the de-regulation of the banking industry and extremely high rates during the 80's, several states also caved to banking interests and relaxed their usury laws.

Worked in the banking industry most of the 80's and saw this happen. My bank stopped giving out mortgages for nearly a year because interest rates were so high that what they paid out in earnings was not much less than they could charge on loans.

Used to be you could look at the terms and conditions on the back of your credit card application or statement and see a list of states in which the interest rate was 17%, 18% or higher according to the limits of their usury laws. Don't see that any more.