Being held up at gunpoint is a minor problem for most Americans compared to having money stolen from them by credit-card companies. Now, as the economy worsens, regulators are finally bestirring themselves to prevent some of the theft.
The Washington Postreports: “The Federal Reserve and two other banking regulators are set to unveil today one of the most aggressive efforts in decades to crack down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.
“The proposed regulations, which could be finalized by year’s end, would label as ‘unfair or deceptive’ practices that consumers have long complained about. That includes charging interest on debt that has been repaid and assessing late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make a payment.”
More than a year after hearings on the industry’s “unfair or abusive” practices, Congress has done nothing about the loan-shark tactics of large banks that charge as much as 30 percent interest for late payments and cash advances.
After being burned by the sub-prime mortgage scandal, federal regulators are taking some action to head off massive credit-card defaults beyond their efforts to educate consumers on how issuers use fine print to steal from them.
Rising food and energy prices are scaring a lot of people. Not the folks at the Federal Reserve, though. They have found a revolutionary mechanism to address worries generated by these price increases. By creating its own preferred inflation measure, the so-called core rate, which factors out food and energy, the Fed can claim inflation is well under control.
Given that food and energy are core elements in sustaining human life, I used to be bothered by this curious approach to economic management. Now that I view the matter from a broader perspective, however, I see many valuable applications in other realms.
Take medicine, for example. Lots of people have cancer and heart disease. But a core rate of health, one that excludes these maladies, would improve our national health statistics dramatically at no extra cost to anyone.
In a related vein (so to speak), by excluding these unpleasant medical realities along with, say, diabetes and alzheimers as causes of death, the average American lifespan would be 102.6 years. And all without any more dieting or exercise. Yippee!
The weather. Boy, can that ever put people out of sorts. So why not just exclude temperatures over 80 degrees and under 70 degrees to get a core temperature of 74 degrees that’s reported on the local news every evening?
Crime! Poof!. Exclude murder, rape and assault from reporting of violent crimes, call what’s left the core crime rate, and there is no violent crime. Think of the money this will save on local police budgets.
Everything is beautiful when everything that isn’t is excluded. Thank you Chairman Bernanke for showing us the way. One thing, though. Could you loan me half a tank of gas and a couple of eggs until payd
