Ah ... it's that wonderful time of the political cycle again: After years of rolling over and playing dead, the folks in Washington are realizing that they're coming up on an election year. Quick! Better take on some issue that'll make it look like you're sticking up for the little guy!
In the midst of the subprime fallout, taking a stand against the consumer lending industry is definitely the way to go. Senator Barack Obama has unveiled his plan for a credit card bill of rights. To his credit, it's ambitious and really takes shots at predatory lenders. It also has no chance of passing in its current form, but hey.
Now we are gearing up for the ultimate in political grandstanding and populist posing: congressional hearings! As our own Lita Epstein wrote earlier, a panel led by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.,are questioning executives from Discover, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) today to learn more about some of the industry's most perfidious techniques for separating customers from their money.
True: Some companies have made token changes in their treatment of consumers in response to Congressional hearings, but that's more to help the politicians they give money to look good, and the industry isn't paying millions to lobbyists for fun.
Congress pretends to take on credit card industry
Posted Dec 4th 2007 3:13PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Politics, Presidential elections
Related Articles From Blogging Stocks
- Old folks leaning on credit cards to get by
121 days ago
- Stock to avoid #4 -- Capital One (COF)
131 days ago
- What happened to the idea of credit card hedging?
327 days ago
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-04-2007 @ 3:44PM
BIll said...
It is a shame that congress doesn't treat card companies as they do tobacco co's,. they cause as much or more harm to the public as smoking and as for the tax payers cost in this? Who do you think the card co's go after to recoup their monies? They ( the card companies) should also be paying the retailer for accepting their card instead of charging the reatailer for taking it. The bottom line? Card co's rip everybody off and suck in people to build up huge debt's and then collect on both ends and without any responsibility AT ALL!
12-04-2007 @ 4:05PM
Princess Poon said...
What a remarkably stupid post. You have to concede at the end of your article that there have been changes (albeit) token, after Congress "pretends" to take on the issue. Well, more than just a token has been done--Firstly, Citibank has already discontinued the practice (if you think that is "token" you are insane) and it has brought enough heat to the issue to make some headway in fighting back. In other words, the new DEMOCRAT congress has done what the republicans allowed to run rampant for 6 years. So it has already worked.