Posted on 04/19/2009 6:29:08 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
White House economic adviser Larry Summers told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Obama plans to join a push planned by congressional Democrats on “credit card abuses” as part of looking out for the little guy while rebuilding the nation’s financial system.
"We need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addicts people to it," Summers said.
Summers told moderator David Gregory that Obama is concerned about “the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Funny, Obama didn't seem too concerned at all about ACORN forcing banks to make loans to people who couldn't pay it off...
Oh sure. I bet Biden will make sure this goes nowhere.
PSST—your veep is from Delaware, the credit-card capital, Biden is behind a lot of these abuses...
The Tea Parties are one thing; the abundant purchases of ammo and guns are the other....we're on a collision course with action that will take back this Country; back to what the U.S. Constitution and FAMILY were supposed to be!
This will be interesting. If you pay your balance every month CCs are a fantastic deal. It’s only those we wouldnt lend money too that get in trouble. What can they do that doesnt cut off the credit?
You think anyone in the White House listens to Biden?
Instead of bitching about obama, maybe, just maybe, you should be saying, “Hey, we can take that idea, improve it, and run full tilt gaining loads of positive P.R.!!” People have complaints about the credit card companies. Valid complaints.
Demonizing obama and those that don’t pull their load financially doesn’t solve diddly. Implement solutions.
99% of their complaints probably boil down to not reading the paperwork they signed...
Ban Joe Camel credit cards!
“99% of their complaints probably boil down to not reading the paperwork they signed...”
Doubtful. People are getting mad about their interest rates rising despite making regular payments. People are mad about due dates being ever changing thus making their budgeting tougher. I’m sure there are other reasons but these are two of the ones I can think of off the top of my head by listening to the Clark Howard show and seeing what my own credit card companies have done.
People have valid complaints about credit card companies. Whichever party pushes solutions through with the most P.R. THE QUICKEST will reap the benefits.
Demonizing the people with the complaints just makes them mad at you.
There’s a real simple solution. Don’t carry a balance on your credit cards. Problem solved.
Excellent point. Large banks have succeeded over the past 20 years in gutting the consumer protection laws that limited how much they could charge their customer base. Then they "reformed" the bankruptcy laws so that consumers in real trouble couldn't get rid of their credit card debts. And they have succeeded in instituting a price fixing system based on credit scores - something that would be illegal for just about any other kind of business.
All of this was achieved by lobbying Congress for bank friendly changes to the law, and by paying huge amounts of money to the campaigns of a lot of liberal Democrats, including of course guys like Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and Joe Biden.
With millions of voters suffering from the activities of the large banks who dominate the credit card business, and simultaneously paying to keep the bank executives in fine wines and chauffeur driven cars, why shouldn't conservatives and Republicans point out the reality of the situation? Why not lead the charge for reform?
Politically speaking, why would anyone want to be on the same side of the fence with Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden? Lets tell the people who are suffering from the rapacious behavior of Chase et al who it was that enabled the legal and regulatory framework that is behind the outrageous fees and interest rates they face today.
You are absolutely right, but not many people here in the mood for solutions to problems. I have seen predatory credit card issuers at work and they are obscene.
Should people be more responsible? By all means. But even Adam Smith observed that free market capitalism requires a moral and ethical base.
We can do better than "Never give a sucker an even break..."
“There’s a real simple solution. Don’t carry a balance on your credit cards. Problem solved.”
Very true but much too simplistic and doesn’t do anything for the people that have balances. Your type of blindered thinking is what gives the Republican party a bad name.
pay you bill when due.
When you use other people’s money, THEY set the terms of its use. Unless of course you’re Congress using ours.
My interest rate doubled in spite of being a regular payer for years. No reason, other than they could. I’m currently trying to find one 0 interest to get rid of the account that changed.
Most credit card rates are from 18 to 27%.
In a rational world the rate should be prime plus some kind of risk premium. The current prime rate is 3.25%. Someone in the banking industry is going to have to talk long and hard to convince me that 15 to 24% is a reasonable risk premium.
Sure, the risk premium should be higher than on a mortgage because there are more defaults on credit cards, but the premiums being charged are outrageous.
And, they smack of price-fixing. Just as an example, I have a 45 year history of paying my bills, including credit card bills on time and no one has ever lost a dime on me. Just why is my rate exactly the same as a new worker with less than 6 months experience and very little credit history? If free enterprise were really working the way the textbooks say it should, excellent credit risks should be getting credit cards with much lower interest rates, somewhere in the 10-12% range and banks should be competing for this business.
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