50. Should your state cap the interest rate on short-term loans, such as payday loans? According to one source, the average payday loan is “flipped” eight times, so the loan system is trapping borrowers in a “cycle of debt.” Lenders counter that they are doing the borrowers a favor because some borrowers have no other alternative (except theft or robbery!), and that small loans and high rates of nonrepayment make high rates of interest essential. One representative said that capping interest rates at a proposed 36% in Wisconsin would “eliminate the industry.” Another objected to figuring the interest rate on an annual basis, claiming that doing so is like calculating the cost of staying in a hotel for a year even though you stay only a couple of nights.