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February 14, 2008
"the predatory lending association"
This is extremely funny and very clever on several levels: as social criticism, as political rhetoric, and as a parody of current fads in website design. I have no idea who's really behind it.
February 14, 2008 1:12 PM | category: none
Comments
Peter:
Thanks for posting this. See here for info. The quote below is from the link.
http://tinyurl.com/2c7p49
"But maybe the coolest thing about the site is its genesis. The Predatory Lending Association is the second project conceived and executed by Front Seat Management, a startup founded by ex-Microsoftie Mike Mathieu along with two other self described techies, Matt Lerner and Jesse Kocher. (The first project was Walk Score, a Google mashup that lets users calculate the "walkability" of their neighborhoods.)
Lerner, a former Microsoft project manager, told me that both projects should be seen "as a form of philanthropy." Mathieu and Lerner aren't the first Microsoft alums to dedicate themselves to social change, but as far as I know, judging by the PLA Web site, they might be the funniest.
"Mathieu made a lot of money last year," said Lerner, "and he wanted to start applying it to some type of social purpose. Mike is a very funny guy -- he has progressive values, but also a very dark, competitive streak. We thought it would be twisted to really use free market rhetoric against payday loans, as a way of demonstrating how as a society, converting short-term financial pain into long--term financial pains isn't good for our citizens."
February 15, 2008 12:14 PM | Comments (1) | posted by mooredp