For all of you paying minimum payments on credit cards, then you are paying nearly all of your money to interest. That is worse than loan sharking, that is making the American people indentured servants to the banks.
So, not only have the banks swindled the American people out of their future retirements and social programs through the trillions of dollars in bail outs. But they also own the American people in a credit racket that actually makes the citizens worse than indentured servants because those servants of old were allowed out of their debt at some point.
Instead the credit servants or serfs of today are expected to pay for their debt forever and can find very little relief in bankruptcy.
Despite complaints that banks and credit card companies are gouging customers by charging outrageous interest rates, the Senate on Wednesday easily turned back an effort to cap interest rates at 15 percent.
The effort by Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, drew only 33 votes and needed 60, with a bipartisan group of 60 senators opposing it as the Senate pushed its credit card overhaul toward the finish line. Some Democrats and consumer groups have said that an interest cap is needed to put real teeth into an otherwise solid bill.
Other backers of the measure calculated that an interest rate ceiling would doom the popular legislation. The banking industry, which had some heavy-weight representatives monitoring the vote off of the Senate floor, warned that an interest rate limit could cause a sour reaction in the financial markets.
But Mr. Sanders said the card companies and banks were engaged in conduct that could get others hauled into court. He said one-third of all credit card holders are paying interest above 20 percent and as high as 41 percent.
"When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available," said Mr. Sanders, who noted credit unions are limited to 15 percent. "They are engaged in loan-sharking." CONT...
