AMERICANS CAN'T GET CREDIT IN THE OBAMA ECONOMY

Left-Right Radio with Chuck Morse

"Progressives have long argued that the federal government must protect the Internet from discrimination by treating service providers like Comcast as public utilities. Now we learn that the Net doesn’t have to be neutral, as long as Google is the company targeting legal businesses that are politically unpopular. Google recently announced in a blog post that the search engine would no longer run advertisements for payday loans with high interest rates and a 60-day-repayment period. “Ads for financial services are a particular area of vigilance given how core they are to people’s livelihood and well being,” the company wrote. Google hopes that “fewer people will be exposed to misleading or harmful products.” The decision doesn’t flow from a great awakening against usury: The venture capital arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has invested in LendUp, a company that offers short-term loans at high interest rates and competes with payday lenders. Google told us that the relevant LendUp ads will be blocked, which is at least consistent. Yet Google also invested about $125 million in the online Lending Club, and who knows if that firm will pick up customers from the ban. Google’s timing is also curious, given that the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is finishing up a rule to wipe out the payday industry by cutting a lender’s ability to collect. This political assault includes Justice Department investigations into banks that do business with payday lenders, which are also lawful outfits." READ MORE: wsj.com/articles/googles-payday-lending-ban-1464643382