Saturday, November 17, 2007

John Edwards Sees The Harm

Surprisingly I have come across a Presidential Candidate who addressees 39% interest rates. On John Edwards For President Web Site, under Issues, in a section named Debt and Savings , the issue is discussed as:

"Limiting Abusive Credit Card Practices: Credit card penalty interest rates can now top 39 percent. Deceptive tactics include bait-and-switch marketing on interest rates, penalty rates triggered by unrelated debt under "universal default" clauses, and mailing statements later in an effort to induce more late fees. Edwards will restore balance in the credit card market through a Borrower's Security Act. The strong new law will require credit card companies to: (1) disclose the true cost of making only minimum payments, (2) restore a 10-day grace period before imposing late fees and penalty rates, (3) apply interest rate increases to future balances only, and (4) end the practice of universal default, where a creditor can change borrowers' terms based on their debt and payments to other creditors. [NCLC, 2005; Demos, 2003; GAO, 2006]"


Wow, there is a Presidential Candidate that sees one of the major tools of the destruction of the Middle Class by the current policies. This legalized loan sharking by the Credit Card Banks, was a neat little part of the revised bankruptcy bill which was passed by the Republican Congress. Mr. Edwards is the only serious Presidential Candidate that I have seen so far that specifically addresses this issue with a solution. Why then, does Senator Edwards not raise his voice in an everyday echo until this despicable practice is spotlighted by this Presidential race? Do his advisers believe that this is a minor issue? How many readers would sit up and take notice if a viable Presidential Candidate actually addressed excessive credit card loan sharking? I don't get it.

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