Americans are falling through the safety net. The government is helping predatory lenders instead.

You might think that right now is not a good time to make it easier for predatory lenders to take advantage of people and trap them in impossible-to-escape debt cycles. And yet.

The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented economic moment. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many facets of the economy have been slowed and shuttered as the result of a pandemic. And while the federal government has taken some measures to stem the damage — expanded unemployment insurance, forbearance on mortgages and student...