Thank God For Al Franken

When I was at Air America Radio in 2006, I knew Al Franken was serious about running for Senate when he moved his show back to his home state of Minnesota. Rumors had turned into a serious candidacy and a hard fought campaign. In 2008, Al Franken beat incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race. In 2009 after many long, litigious months, Franken was sworn into office. And in 2010 the former comedy man continues to impress, especially with his latest legislative victory recorded today.

From Yahoo News:

An amendment from Democratic Senator Al Franken would set up a government clearinghouse to assign debt rating duties to agencies, including the Big Three: Moody's Corp, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

That could ease pressures the agencies face to assign overly rosy ratings to debt instruments issued by firms that hire the agencies, backers of the Franken amendment said.

"There is a staggering conflict of interest facing the credit rating industry," Franken said on the Senate floor.

The Franken plan could bring more competition to ratings, said Bill Bergman, an analyst with Morningstar Inc.

Chris Dodd, known for his financial cred around the Senate, did not support this amendment coming to pass. He's not exactly a picture of cherubic goodness in D.C. if you know what I mean. Senator Dodd aside, this is a huge victory those who hold credit cards and a big defeat for those that rip off consumers and work (generally at the top) in the industry. Once the bill passes, and if the amendment remains intact, Congress' attempt at financial reform will have at least one victory written within. Congrats to Senator Franken for pushing this through, err or in Republican-speak, ramming it down our throats!

Obama Uses Weekly Address To Slam Credit Card Industry

The President's address this morning not only lambasted the slimy practices of the credit card industry, he also challenged the Senate to step up and legislate them into treating credit card holders with respect and fairness with a wide range of reforms.

The Fed Loves The Banks, Credit Card Holders Not So Much

Ever since Bear Stearns collapsed, the Fed has made the news more often than for the occasional interest rate change. Over the last year, they've helped bailout more companies than I can count. Billions and trillions have been doled out to banks to keep them afloat amidst the wreckage they've created for themselves. Almost every one of these financial service institutions have gotten the public money they've requested, so when the consumer comes calling for a little mercy from their credit card debts, the Fed is ready and willing to help, right?

Wrong:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve rejected a request to force credit card companies to immediately halt retroactive interest-rate increases on existing balances, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said Tuesday.

Schumer and Christopher Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, asked the Fed last month to use its emergency powers for rescuing banks to also help credit card consumers being slapped with unexpected rate increases.

"The Federal Reserve's failure to protect consumers from these outrageous rate increases is unconscionable," Schumer said.

Why would the Fed be so cruel, so heartless, so dispassionate towards the millions upon millions of Americans that suffer from the deceptive practices of the credit card industry? Well, Bernanke has an answer:

In a letter to Schumer, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who has called credit card practices "unfair and deceptive," said credit card issuers have been "encouraged" to comply with the Fed's final rules as soon as possible.

He also said shortening the implementation date of the Fed's rules could cause issuers to overreact by cutting the availability of credit and costing consumers more to use a credit card.

"We believe that issuers must be afforded sufficient time for implementation to allow for an orderly transition process that avoids unintended consequences, compliance difficulties and potential liabilities," Bernanke wrote in a May 4 letter.

Basically, credit card companies can cut people's credit down (and they have already, including my own) but as for helping consumers with the actual debt and service charge abuse....Bernanke wants us all to wait for the issuers to reform all on their own. As if credit card companies are eager to suddenly be nice to their debtors customers after screwing them in their pocketbooks for years on end. If Bernanke believes that, I've got a bridge over the East River to sell him.

How The Credit Card Companies Barrel Over Us In More Ways Than One

Cenk Uyugr breaks it down for ya:

Republicans Silence Witnesses To Help Credit Card Companies

Republicans may be in the minority in the House of Representatives, but that isn't going to stop them from trying to help their friends over at JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Capitol One. There was a hearing this past Thursday to get credit card holders' statements on their experiences with unexpected rate changes but for some odd reason, out of the five that flew across the country to testify only one did.

From Mother Jones:

In 2000, Illinois resident Marvin Weatherspoon (right) got a Bank of America credit card that he used to consolidate $12,000 in home repair bills, thinking the 4.5 percent introductory interest rate would help him get out of debt faster. Instead, though, eight years later, he has paid the bank more than $15,000, yet has reduced his principal balance by only $800. The reason? Even though he's paid his bills on time, Bank of America inexplicably raised his interest rate, first to 19.99 percent and then to 25 percent, where it is today.

Weatherspoon came to Washington yesterday to tell his story at a hearing on the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights, a bill sponsored by New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) that would restrict the kind of arbitrary interest rate increases Weatherspoon got hit with, among other things. But as it turned out, Weatherspoon never got to testify. The ever-powerful credit-card companies successfully bounced all of the consumers off the panel, leaving only academics and credit card executives to speak publicly.

At the outset of the hearing before a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, Maloney explained that "there have been fairness concerns raised about having consumers testify this morning without a waiver that allowed their credit-card issuers to respond publicly." Translation: The credit card companies wanted the consumer witnesses to make their financial records public so the banks could "rebut" their complaints, i.e., trash them in the press.

Yeah thats right, the CC companies stooped that low. Well if you were trying to keep up a false image and had billions of dollars riding on it (and you had no conscience) then you would do the same thing. Meanwhile the lobbyists of these banks got to fill up the seats in the committee room and testify about all the good things these companies have done for their customers. Of course that doesn't include jacking up interest rates at a moment's notice. Preventing those abuses is what the House Democrats are proposing in this legislation. A Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights is a necessary item with the greed of these companies increasing daily. For them its the bottom line and their customers be damned.