Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A RIQUEZA DOS POBRES

Nouriel Roubini é, nos dias que correm, um dos economistas mais lidos e ouvidos nos EUA. Roubini, de origem italiana*, mantem um blog, RGE, do qual respiguei o seu comentário, colocado no blog anteontem, 21/3**, sobre um artigo publicado na Business Week acerca das consequências perversas do crédito compulsivo. Portugal não é os EUA mas há problemas comuns, geralmente do lado negativo.

...
In recent years, a range of businesses have made financing more readily available to even the riskiest of borrowers. Greater access to credit has put cars, computers, credit cards, and even homes within reach for many more of the working poor. But this remaking of the marketplace for low-income consumers has a dark side: Innovative and zealous firms have lured unsophisticated shoppers by the hundreds of thousands into a thicket of debt from which many never emerge...

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As an online addition to this excellent cover story Business Week asked me and another blogger, Tyler Cowen from George Mason University to debate online the following question:
Stop Fleecing Poor Americans. The U.S. government should place greater restrictions on car sellers, pay-day lenders, and tax preparers who offer the working poor cash or credit with high fees and interest rates. Pro or con?

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Correcções - *Nouriel Roubini nasceu em Istambul filho de pais iranianos judeus (2010/05/08)

** - Obviamente, 21/5

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