"[...] in 1980, U.S. federal usury laws, which had previously limited interest to between 7 and 10 percent, were eliminated by act of Congress. Just as the United States had managed to largely get rid of the problem of political corruption by making the bribery of legislators effectively legal (it was redefned as "lobbying"), so the problem of loan-sharking was brushed aside by making real interest rates of 25 percent, so percent, or even in some cases (for instance for payday loans) 120 percent annually, once typical only of organized crime, perfectly legal-and therefore, enforce­ able no longer by just hired goons and the sort of people who place mutilated animals on their victims' doorsteps, but by judges, lawyers, bailiffs, and police." (pg.376) Debt, The First 5000 Years, by David Graeber (2011)