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Payday lending——Shark bait
发薪日贷款：海底大冒险
The Labour Party launches an attack on payday lenders. It may be too late
工党向发薪日贷款人发难，但这可能为时已晚。
IN THE real world, shoppers are moving online. But retail politics—selling eye-catching policies to voters—still starts on the high street. On October 17th Ed Miliband, Labour's leader, announced plans to “halt the tide of payday loan firms” into Britain's shopping districts that accelerated following the economic crisis in 2008.
现实生活中，顾客在网上购物。但是零售式竞选政治—政客当面请求公众以拉票的活动—仍然在繁华的商业大街上进行着。10月17日，工党的领导人，艾德·米利班德，宣布“限制”在英国的商业中心建立“发薪日贷款公司”的计划。自从2008年经济危机以后，发薪日贷款公司在英国市中心发展速度加快。
Payday lenders are an obvious example of what Mr. Miliband considers irresponsible capitalism. As well as making struggling high streets even less attractive, they are accused of stiffing impoverished customers with high interest rates. Nearly a third of payday loans are taken out to cover day-to-day household bills, Labour says. Excessive borrowing is a common cause of poverty, according to the Citizens Advice Bureau, a charity.
米利班德认为发薪日贷款人是不负责的资本主义的一个典型例子。发薪日贷款人不仅使得繁华的大街的吸引力减弱，而且也受到指控利用高利率诈骗贫穷的顾客。工党宣称，大约有三分之一的发薪日贷款用来支付家庭的日常开支。慈善机构公民咨询局表明，过多的贷款是造成贫穷的普遍原因。
Mr. Miliband proposes three prongs of attack. First, a Labour government would push the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to introduce some sort of cap on interest rates or charges. Second, it will increase the levy that lenders currently pay to the FCA and spend it on debt counseling and supporting credit unions (non-profit mutual lenders). Third, councils will be given new powers to prevent shops being turned into payday lenders.
米利班德提出了三条应对策略。首先，工党政府可督促金融市场行为监管局对利率或费用进行限制。第二，政府将提高款权人目前向金融市场行为监管局缴纳的税收并将其用于债务咨询，支持信用合作者(非营利共同贷款人)。第三，将授予委员会新的职权以避免商店成为发薪日贷款方。
Overall, these suggestions are modest. At present the government spends ￡13m ($21m) per year on encouraging credit unions. Labour wants to double that figure, suggesting the new levy would be fairly light. Any new cap on interest rates is unlikely to be tight. Changing planning laws—not a new idea—would have the most effect, but most high streets have plenty of payday loan shops already. There may be little pressure to open new ones.
总的来说，这些建议都很合理。目前，政府每年支出1300英镑用于鼓励信用合作社发展。工党想增加一倍的支出，并认为新税率将会有所降低。任何利率的新规定都不会太严格。改变计划法律?—这并非是个新想法—可能会获益匪浅，但是大多数商业街已经有很多发薪日贷款店铺的存在了。开办新的发薪日贷款店铺不会承担很多压力。
Indeed, there are reasons to think that payday lending has peaked. Bank of England figures show that credit-card lending is picking up again after several years of decline. Partly thanks to government prodding, credit unions are trying to lure customers from payday lenders, spending more on advertising and speeding up their application processes. Even the Church of England wants to compete short-term lenders out of business.
确实，有理由认为发薪日贷款目前正是如日中天的时候。英格兰银行的数据显示信用卡贷款在沉寂了几年之后现在又开始复苏。部分由于政府的刺激，信用合作社设法从发薪日贷款人那里争夺顾客，加大了宣传力度并加快了他们的申请程序。甚至英国国教都想竞争短期贷款。
That will not put off Mr. Miliband. As he points out, real wages are still falling. And much like those other high-street bugbears, bookmakers and pawnbrokers, payday lenders will not disappear soon. But eventually the tide will go out—and politics will have little to do with it.
这并不会阻挡米利班德前进的脚步。他指出，工资会持续下降。和其他商业大街的顽疾一样， 出版商、当铺老板、发薪日贷款人都不会很快消失在人们的生活中。但最终潮水会退去—而政治和这关系不大。
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