More to the Sioux Falls story
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Re “A land that recession forgot,” April 11
The Times glanced over one very important point about Sioux Falls, S.D. You wrote that “in the early ‘80s, Citibank and other financial companies began to open branch offices here to escape New York usury laws that hampered their efforts to expand into the credit card market.”
That makes it sound as if New York prohibited the credit card business from expanding. Rather, it had laws that kept the banks from charging usurious interest rates on credit card debt. The reason the banks set up shop in Sioux Falls -- thereby helping the city through the recession -- is that South Dakota removed limits on what banks that have headquarters in the state can charge in interest.
That is why some of your readers are paying upward of 30% interest on credit card debt. Sioux Falls may be doing all right, but its actions have cost the rest of us dearly. The city should not be held up as a good example of how to weather a recession.
Peter Bosco
Palm Springs
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