2: The APR system used in the USA is a very poor indicator that is quite confusing and misleading for non-US people - took me ages to work it out, and it is terrible.
True.
US version of APR is simply ridiculous. UK version of APR is much more reasonable as it takes in account compound interest. In case of pirate it could be the difference between ~300 and ~3000 APR between US and UK version. Less confusing would be using AER. See this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_percentage_rate for details.