{"id":28379,"date":"2019-09-08T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/?p=28379"},"modified":"2020-04-27T16:30:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T16:30:29","slug":"when-400-emergency-pushes-you-over-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/considerchapter13.org\/2019\/09\/08\/when-400-emergency-pushes-you-over-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"When $400 Emergency Pushes You Over the Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Cathy Moran, Esq.<\/a> (Redwood City, CA)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Federal Reserve reported<\/a> that 40% of Americans couldn\u2019t meet a $400 emergency without borrowing. A significant slice of them couldn\u2019t pay it at all.<\/p>\n So, a Bloomberg economist<\/a> devoted his column to deconstructing how the press and political figures, in his opinion, misused that finding.<\/p>\n OMGoodness.<\/p>\n The guy was too caught up in quibbling about how the numbers were summarized to grapple with the human story beneath the numbers.<\/p>\n He took comfort in the fact that only 12% couldn\u2019t borrow $400.<\/p>\n Emergency borrowing<\/strong><\/p>\n What about those who could<\/em> pay $400 by borrowing?<\/p>\n Payday lenders charge an average of 400% interest for a two week loan. While touted as a vital service to low income communities without access to bank loans, payday lending is too often nothing more than financial quicksand.<\/p>\n\n