Revealing power imbalances: What do cigarettes, casino card counters and Jian Ghomeshi have to do with financial literacy?
Preface On November 3, 2014, I drove a woman for whom I advocate named Linda Chamberlain to two payday lending outfits. She was taking cash advances from one to pay the other after maxing out a credit card which she used for cash advances to pay for food and non-insured medical supplies. She is 65 and suffers from a variety of mental and physical illnesses. In one month, she had racked up credit card and fees of $238, $93 for going over a credit limit, $105 in payday lender fees and the rest in interest at 19.7%. She needed $60 that morning for medical supplies and food. Inside the second of the two payday lenders, we carefully counted out the $605 she needed to pay off a debt of $500…