Wall-Street Gall: Handy Summary
Making such pronouncements particularly galling is the fact that many of the banks summarily raising interest rates [on credit-card debt] and piling on the penalties have received billions in bailout money. Our money. We gave Citi $45 billion, Bank of America $45 billion, JPMorgan $25 billion, AmEx $3.4 billion, Capital One $3.6 billion, and Discover $1.2 billion. In fact, American Express, Capital One, and Discover all converted to bank holding companies to make themselves eligible for bailout funds.
[Arianna Huffington, "The Credit Card Debt Crisis: The Next Economic Domino", Huffington Post, 26 February 2009]
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To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Thursday, 26 February 2009 at 02.35
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Fresh evidence, as if any is needed, that one long overdue reform
is restoration of usury laws and federally set interest ceilings.
Those were dispensed with during a period of high inflation toward
the end of the Carter administration. The argument was that if
interest rates weren't allowed to float up and find their level in the
marketplace, credit would dry up. Under the circumstances, that
made some sense. What didn't make sense was just leaving things
that way ever since.
Well, it didn't make sense for consumers and small business. It made
plenty of sense for credit card outfits and their well-paid lobbyists.
on Thursday, 26 February 2009 at 10.47
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Conservatives are very good at crafting arguments that sound good but they rarely hold up to scrutiny or long-term utility. A favorite: it's such a thankless, low-paying, 24/7 job that gets all the blame and all the responsibility–and yet plenty of people every few years seem willing to spend millions of dollars for a chance to be president.
on Saturday, 28 February 2009 at 13.24
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Conservatives are very good at crafting arguments that sound good
You mean it may be possible for me to reach that lofty plateau someday?
BTW real conservatives don't use credit cards. We make our own stuff, thank you very much. If needed, we barter. Occasionally, someone gets really liberal and uses cash.