Once again, Matt Taibbi says it like it is.
This is a classic example of how the Senate works . . . Bernie Sanders had put forth a proposal in the Senate to put a 15 percent cap on credit-card interest. Who isn’t in favor of this kind of legislation? The only difference between credit card companies and loan sharks at this point is that you can choose to not patronize a loan shark. As an adult professional in this country one has to have a credit card – it’s impossible to rent a car, buy a hotel room, shop online or do countless other things without one.
But all the credit card companies use the same insane formulae based on FICO scores to charge exorbitant interest rates for anyone who slips up – and they don’t exactly make it easy to not slip up . . . Almost everyone has horror stories about consumer credit and my guess is that if put to a national referendum, something like the Sanders 15% cap would pass pretty easily. In Washington, of course, it’s another story.
If we had a national referendum, the 15% cap would pass 90-10 if we had an honest debate. Of course, if there were really a national vote on the issue, the airwaves would be filled with bank-financed fraudulent ads telling us how the entire country will go bankrupt if we don’t charge a minimum of 30% interest rates on credit cards, or some similar bullshit.
