It is time to re-instate usury laws by capping interest rates at 10%.

Why 10%? Because 10% is enough.

It is enough to allow credit to flow to all worthy borrowers. It is enough to allow bankers their fair share of profit. It is enough to protect families from permanent indebtedness. And it is enough to divert our economy away from the speculative gambling that has caused our present economic crisis, and back towards productive wealth creation in the industries of the future: green manufacturing, sustainable energy, and others that the American entrepreneurial spirit has yet to imagine.

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN. STAND AGAINST USURY.

BECAUSE 10% IS ENOUGH!

  • "Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity: For He loveth not creatures ungrateful and wicked."

    ~ Qur'an 2:276 (trans. Yusufali)

  • "If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them."

     

    ~ Exodus 22:25 (NRSV)

  • "If 10% is enough for God, it’s enough for Bank of America."

    ~ Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, United Methodist West Ohio Conference Columbus, Ohio

  • "The campaign that Metro Industrial Areas Foundation is launching today is important to protecting working families in Illinois and across the country from egregious lending practices that often ruin their chance for financial stability.”

     

    ~ Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of the State of Illinois

  • "For most of human history, our religious sages and political leaders have condemned the practice of lending at exorbitant interest. We stand with them against the profiteers who have pillaged our communities."

    ~ Bishop Douglas I. Miles, Koinonia Baptist Church, Baltimore, Maryland

  • "What we need now more than thousands of pages of new regulations, or the sour faces of executives forced to reduce their eight-figure salaries to a mere seven, is a 10% cap on interest rates. Why 10%? Because 10% is enough."

    ~ Michael Gecan, National Staff of the Industrial Areas Foundation

  • "You shall not charge interest on loans, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent."

    ~ Deuteronomy 23:19 (NRSV)

Get Involved

You can help support Metro IAF by:

"10 and 6: Enough is Enough" (North Carolina IAF)

 

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"These Rates Would Shock a Loan Shark" by Jim Dwyer for the New York Times

"These Rates Would Shock a Loan Shark" by Jim Dwyer for the New York Times

 

Submitted by ari on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 22:19

Welcome to the Metro IAF Website

The Metro Industrial Areas Foundation (Metro IAF) is a network of 17 broad-based citizens organizations throughout the East Coast, Midwest, and Europe. We are a regional affiliate of the national Industrial Areas Foundation (www.industrialareasfoundation.org), created by Saul Alinsky in 1940.  

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