January 07, 2008


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BEWARE "THE SUITS"


One of the cliches from the silent movie days was the evil banker tying the innocent widow to the railroad tracks. But maybe they knew something about bankers. These days they wear the expensive suits and run countless commercials on TV and send out tons of credit card offers, but they're just as corrupt and despicable as a leg-breaking loan shark. "Respectable" bankers will jack up your interest rates on the slightest pretext, hit you for usurious fees for being one day late with a payment, or ding you with countless fees on a checking account. This article by Susan J. Douglas is linked at www.alternet.org:


The barely regulated banks are getting away with one usurious practice after the next: In addition to the subprime fiasco now threatening the entire economy, there are the extortionate service fees on your bank accounts and the escalating interest fees, late fees and truncated payment cycles on your credit cards. Millions of us now get credit card bills that give us 10 days -- and those aren't 10 business days -- to pay up or get hit with a late fee. No wonder the credit card industry has been one of the most profitable in the country, earning on the order of $30 billion annually. The rates credit card companies charge retailers have gone up 85 percent since 2001, and those are passed onto us.

In 2005, Congress passed the infamous bankruptcy "reform" act after major lobbying by the financial-industrial complex, adding to the enormous pressure many people are feeling from the mortgage-housing-credit crisis. Designed to protect creditors, the law makes it harder and more expensive to declare bankruptcy.

It used to be that people in financial trouble could file under Chapter 7, which typically allowed them to keep their homes while other property was sold off to help cover credit card and medical debts. What pissed off the banks was that, after flooding everyone with offers to acquire even more credit cards, some of this debt would get massively reduced or written off under the old law.