Ah, the suspense was killing us all, wasn’t it?  Governor Perdue announced last night that she would be in Charlotte today with GREAT economic news, and sure enough, here it is:

1,014 new jobs announced at Charlotte nonprofit

Gov. Bev Perdue is in Charlotte this morning to announce 1,014 new jobs at the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a nationwide nonprofit, the governor’s office said …

… Based in Boston, NACA is a national affordable lending program that focuses on low- and moderate-income families and properties. It offers loans with no down payments, closings costs or fees to customers.

The nonprofit’s leader, Bruce Marks, is a self-described “bank terrorist” known for holding protests against banks that the group deems to have poor lending records in minority and poor communities.

In that time-honored Southern aphorism, help me to understand … here is a group that specializes in making the very kind of stupid loans to ne’er-do-wells who won’t pay them back that have put the entire economy in the tank in the first place; why is their coming to a city that’s already on the bleeding edge of the comeuppance for making such stupid loans and "creating" 1,014 "new jobs" a cause for celebration? With apologies to Grameen Bank, we’re not talking micro-credit loans here. These are subprime loans, pure and simple.  The only difference I can see here is that these folks appear to specialize in the same kind of shakedown tactics that keep the race baiting industry alive and kicking.

Perhaps some smart guy or another who has shown time and again that he has a better grasp of these matters related to finance might help me out here.  Check out the NACA website and explain to me how I’ve gotten this wrong.  Perhaps some of the fine folks at the Chamber could enlighten me?

UPDATE: Jeff sent a little link love my way as you can see in the trackback below.  He also has some additional information on our new neighbors as well.