Today's award goes jointly and severally to Congressional Representatives Peter Welch (D-Vt.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.). Why? Politico reports:
Several liberal Democratic lawmakers on Thursday demanded an investigation into whether the nation’s largest banks – including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo – are coordinating efforts to raise fees for consumers, contending that would violate federal antitrust laws.
“There is clearly no problem with banks making independent business decisions based upon the landscape as they see it,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. “Antitrust issues are raised, however, if they are attempting to facilitate group decisions on their prices, terms and conditions”
Though they conceded that they had no specific evidence that banks were colluding, the lawmakers argued that having the Justice Department police the institutions could be enough to ward off rising prices for customers.
There's more at the link. Bold, underlined print is my emphasis.
Can't these doofi feel their own feet being self-inserted into their joint and several mouths? Are they seriously demanding that the Justice Department try to intimidate businesses by threatening investigations and prosecutions, even while they simultaneously admit that they have no evidence whatsoever of criminal wrongdoing by these businesses? Can you just imagine what they'd say if a group of Republican legislators demanded something similar? Their screams of outrage would deafen everyone within ten miles of the Capitol!
There's a simple solution to the outrageous fees being demanded by many of this country's major banks. As Comrade Misfit so succinctly puts it:
Vote with your feet and your wallets. F*** those guys, move your money.
I couldn't have said it better myself!
Peter
The really scary part is that those self righteous hypocrites probably don't think they are doing anything wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut then, for someone without the mental ability to cross the street safely by themselves, it probably IS a good thing when "Big Brother" holds your hand and does the thinking for you.
Old Fart
Are they seriously demanding that the Justice Department try to intimidate businesses by threatening investigations and prosecutions, even while they simultaneously admit that they have no evidence whatsoever of criminal wrongdoing by these businesses?
ReplyDeleteAnd the Holder Injustice Department will likely do exactly that. God help us. :(
Federal Government passes a law (at the behest of businesses) reducing the rate at which banks are allowed to charge same businesses for debit transactions.
ReplyDeleteBanks raise fees other places.
Federal government investigates banks for doing exactly what you'd expect them to.
*headdesk*
Not only that, perlhaqr, but they passed the damn law because they claimed the banks were ripping people off with outrageous and hidden fees, and high interest rates. So, before the law was even passed, the banks immediately raised the rates on credit cards across the board. I had a credit card that I have had since I was 18 y.o. At the time I got the card, the rate was 15.9%. At the time, it was a decent card at a decent rate for an 18 y.o. with no credit score. As time went on, I managed to get my credit score way up, and my interest rate way down, all the way to just under 6%. Then the law comes along, and all of my credit card companies raised my rates, despite my near perfect credit score. The rate on the card I had when I was 18 was now 17.99%, higher than when I first got it! Two decades of working towards perfect credit for that low interest rate, out the window. They wouldn't outright admit it was because the law was coming down the pike, but they would tell me that it had nothing to do with me, but they were raising the rate on every cardholder, regardless. (one of the condtions of the then-coming law was that banks had to jump through all kinds of hoops to raise someone's rate, should they default or miss payments etc). Since they wouldn't be able to raise my rates if I screwed up and failed to pay on time, they raised them in advance.
ReplyDeleteOnce more, government sees a problem, makes a solution, and voila!, the problem is worse.
Granted, I'm not happy with the banks for doing what they did, but what does one expect? Banks are a business that loans money to people, and have a structure of fees for people who can't seem to pay back the money they borrowed in a timely manner, and then the government comes along and enforces new rules that effectively dry up a source of profit, what can one expect, except that the banks would try to find other avenues of profit to make up for the lost ones? Isn't that what businesses are supposed to do?
The nine scariest words in the English language:
I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.
I think you represent a very scary portion of the credit card carrying population with that near perfect score of yours. We love our high scores, but I think we are a painful rear end to the people who are trying to collect higher fees.
ReplyDeleteOur good credit score got us zero loan from Wells, even though they have the money. Moved the accounts to the Credit Union. They love us!
But you're right, it doesn't solve the problem; it only helps BO to get further into the banking industry in his attempt to nationalize it.
Just like Durbin's amendment, they see NOTHING wrong, nor do they think there will be any backlash... idjits...
ReplyDeleteLocal Banks are not affected. People(who think) are moving to credit unions and small banks. I now use The Jacksonville Bank, no fees, no problems. Like Trailbee says, they love us.
ReplyDelete