Banksters Renew Their Extortion Threat

[marmar]

from ourfuture.org:



Banksters Renew Their Extortion Threat
By Isaiah J. Poole

November 24, 2009 - 11:52am ET


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The banking industry renewed its extortion threat against Congress today: If you create an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency that is not beholden to the banking industry, we'll make American consumers pay.

That's precisely the threat contained in a recently released set of "talking points" from the American Financial Services Association, which calls itself "the national trade association for the consumer credit industry."

Entitled, "The CFPA: Why It Could Do More Harm Than Good," the document's first argument is, "Consumers will pay more for financial products and services at a time when they can least afford it." Because the agency's costs will be covered in part through fees paid by financial institutions themselves, the association says that bankers will just wrap those costs into the fees they charge for credit cards and loan products.

But that ignores arguments made by the administration as far back as July that the consumer agency could actually reduce regulatory costs by helping to streamline regulatory responsibilities. The line of attack is also a distraction from what's really driving voter anger against the banking industry and the demand for reform: such items as the estimated $31 billion in overdraft charges levied by banks against consumers this year, often without customers realizing that their $5 debit card purchase would result in a $35 bank fee rather than the expected denial because of insufficient funds. That's not a regulatory cost. That's a naked profit grab. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009114824/banksters-renew-their-extortion-threat

[nykym]

1. Yes,

and if we had congresscritters on our side they could write the legislation to read that any costs involved will be paid for by the banks and NOT I repeat NOT be passed along to consumers. If you make threats we will change the legislation to counter your threats. Yes I know wishful thinking but you have to start somewhere.

[R. P. McMurphy]

2. Amoral Thieving Mother f*****s! n/t

[pscot]

13. Motherfuckers is one word

and it's the right word for these thugs.

[Vidar]

15. I agree with the sentiment, but not the wording. They're hardly amoral.

They are evil motherfuckers!

[DJ13]

3. I think Congress should start holding hearings on breaking up TBTF

in response to these threats.

[imdjh]

4. Which is why we need more and smaller banks, and laws and enforcement....

.... which keeps these banks from strategically combining and swapping out account portfolios in a way designed to trap the borrower.

Competition is the mantra of the right, make them live by it, and make the left stop taking payoffs to look the other way when they don't.

[yurbud]

5. It's time to make some of them pay--with all their assets and a sentence at regular ass-rape prison

[harkadog]

14. Didn't take long for the ass-rape as just punishment to come out.

[bvar22]

6. Hey, that sounds like the extortion threat from the Health Insurance Industry.

"Give us a TRILLION Dollars and force everybody to buy our junk "Insurance", or we'll keep letting 44,000 Americans die every year."

There are DUers who believe that capitulation to that threat is "progress".

"Thank God it passed!!!!!!!"

[Democrats_win]

7. Set up the guillotines and send the bastards to hell.

[lib2DaBone]

8. How can America be so IGNORANT to the ass rape they are receiving from the banks?

:shrug:


Hey.. I gotta go.. Sarah Palin is down at my book store and I gota run.. I wana get her autograph....

[Larkspur]

9. Because their fellow corporations are brainwashing the Tea Party mob that it's Big Government's

fault for all the problems. Course they don't tell the Tea Party mob that our government is being hijacked by corporations who are fleecing us all.

[zoff]

10. Id' say majority of tea partyiers are dirt poor so cannot relate to financial issues.

They're used to not having health insurance and so cannot relate to HCR. They're the perfect right wing followers: blind to reason, slaves to their right wing pols' talking points.

[tomm2thumbs]

11. Wall Street, the CIA and Lobbyists run this country

'...do as we say and no one gets hurt™...' should be their tag line

[classysassy]

12. Those are the thugs

that are destroying this country,and we the people are their enablers.

[JohnWxy]

16. Thanks for this post. Tried to recommend but was too late.

everyone should email their SEnators and Representatives that if we do not have a group monitoring banks NOT under banking industry control we will see more credit disaster in the future. We have to protect the country (and the bankers) from themselves. They will do it again unless we have real regulatory discipline.