Plus.

“…The Goldman Sachs relationship with Congress has just gotten even more intimate. Goldman has grown another tentacle, designed to grab directly at the House Financial Services Committee chair Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The new top lobbyist, Michael Paese, was recently the top staffer to Frank. He has been a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank’s committee in September and will join Goldman as director of government affairs…

http://www.economicpolicyjourn…..frank.html

That revolving door.

credit cards = usury racket

With friends like these, who needs enemies. Harry over in the Senate won’t or can’t lead on mortgage cram down. It looks like the entire Democratic Leadership is bought and paid for by the banking lobby.

Didn’t we just vote for a Change in the direction of the country? Where the hell is it? Same old, Same old. The rich get richer and the rest of us get nada

A nationwide revolt is making more sense every day. No mortgage or credit card payments until Congress acts responsibly.

What will the banksters do about it, hire a private army to incarcerate 300 million people in debtors’ prison?

Thanks for bringing the light to this issue Jane. We are so f@#$%. Wish I could be more eloquent.

Yanked from a “quaint” document.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Thanks Jane! Banksters are using our money to pay themselves enormous salaries, gouge us with the blessing of our elected representative and continue to rule us through control of the election process. How effective. How quaint. How about a change we can believe in? Write and call today!

Why can’t we have usury laws?

And if banks feel that customers are not credit worthy, why issue them teaser cards and then hit them with 30% rates?

That’s insane.

Sort of like payday loans except you can get a credit card without having a job.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

I have a solution to the corporate buy-out of the House Democratic leadership: Joe Sestak and Dave Obey!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUCKIN’ AMMUNITION AND REMEMBER THAT A FASCIST BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL A FASCIST!!

It’s discouraging that the people who are supposed to be on our side and looking out for us AREN’T.

What the H is going on here?

- Tom

THE ANSWER IS term LIMitS

throw the bums out

Barney Frank ?Well good to see people finally taking note of some of the underhand bs Frank has done to ordinary Americans over the years.It’s mind numbing that Barney Frank & Chuck Schumer are thought of as “good liberals”.Think Maddow is going to do a segment on Frank’s shenanigans,hey don’t hold your breath.

Senate???

Insert maniacal laugh here.

Don’t worry, I’m sure my senator, Evan Bahy will make sure the bill passes with strict protections…

….sorry, I can’t even type that with a straight face. Anyone want to trade senators?

Sestak is very likely to be a Blue Dog. I think we can do better.

This is all going to run aground, probably this year. Then Congress will fix the problems because there will be no other choice. But we have to hold out until they do.

Anyone want to trade senators?

Love to. But he’s my senator too. And I have Joe Donnelly. SIGH. Doubly blessed.

OK How do we go about organizing this nationwide revolt? We talk the talk, but can we walk the walk?

The housing bubble burst 21 months ago on August 9, 2007. We went into recession 17 months ago in December 2007. The financial meltdown occurred 7 1/2 months ago on September 15, 2008. The effects of these events have overlapped two Administrations, one of each party, yet to date neither the Executive nor the Congress have addressed a single fundamental problem underlying them. Limiting credit card interest rates would have been an important step in restraining consumer debt and freeing up money that could go into actually stimulating the economy.

As such, it was bound to be killed by the Congress or Obama. At every point in our descent into depression, there have been real, reasonable, and workable solutions to our economic and financial problems, and each and every one of these has been stopped cold by our elites: political, financial, economic, academic, and media.

Truly we live in the Age of Stupid.

Public financing of federal elections. Term limits has been a tactic promoted by the right.

the EXTREMELY rich Nancy and all her rich kids pay CASH on their shopping sprees

I called and they switched me to a machine to record my protest. Guess they don’t want to , you know, actually talk to any dirty Fing hippies.
The fight we have now is in our own party.

Thanks for the Zappa reference, Jane.

I think so too. I liked Sestak, even gave hard cash, until he voted for FISA. My bad. Course he had a lot of company as I recall…

Thanks Jane. Please stay on this. Very few other writers are on it. Yet so many people are mad as hell about it and would be madder still if they knew the depths of the treachery from the Dems.

I spoke with her Pelosi’s rep – he swore this was not true, and wanted to know where I got the info. Said it probably wasn’t a good source – I said the person who told me this info was a real reporter, not one of those hacks like Jake Tapper we see grandstanding on C-Span every day.

Uhhuh, Pelosi and Frank as well as their support troops are Democrats. Right. What makes them different from Republicans? They are certainly no less corrupt. Just members of the Corporate Party.

Right! I have been telling SanderO that for a year now. Public financing of elections and getting people to VOTE. You vote the fuckers out. Term limits create chaos because only the inexperienced serve.

I am a liberal. I have never voted for a republican in my life. In fact I had an impeach Bush website that went up on December 12 2000. But I am going to say, easy credit is what made this country great, and will again. But the cost of easy credit is high interest rates. Credit cards are one step above a loan shark, but a big step. If you don’t like the terms of a credit card, then don’t use it. Go to the bank and take out a loan at better terms. But don’t stop me from using my cards. I am old enough to remember what it was like to have to deal with a banker every time I wanted a loan, and it sucks. Take responsibility for your own actions, and stop trying to make the government protect me from myself. I don’t need the protection and I don’t want it.

Citizen msmolly:

Yes dear,he surely has a scarry pedigree and is of course too skilled in bureaucratic warfare but if he holds Skelletor’s feet to the fire and bends ‘im to vote cloture on EFCA then I think he’s burned enough bridges to the corporatists…besides, he’s shrewd, he knows that Blue Dog Lane is a culdesac.

Just think how much more money would be available for the real economy if interest rates were capped at 10%. These fools have no interest in shoring up the real economy, and are in no uncertain terms killing a reasonable and clearly defined opportunity to do so. Scum buckets, all. And I told them so.

Thanks, Jane. These posts are invaluable in keeping our so-called representatives’ feet to the fire.

Something that’s occurred to me on this topic, wrt our right-wing, religious friends, especially since so many are working class, likely struggling with these very rates and fees.

There’s a famous bible story about Jesus’ fury toward the money-changers. Really, how is this much different? Can’t we point out that this is a prime example of how the financial “conservative” wing of the Republican party sells out their social conservative friends to line their own pockets?

Pile some working-class fundamentalist outrage onto the progressive case and we could actually make a difference here.

The problem is that the country is so used to easy credit, it is difficult to wean themselves off it, especially with stagnant wages, unemployment, rising health care (that is often paid for with plastic). I would like to see consumer economics taught in every high school and middle school. The level of personal financial literacy in this country is dreadful. But the banks love this. They can only get rich from our ignorance, and they prey on the most vulnerable, most ignorant, and the poorest. So, what do you think we will experience a widespread awakening to responsible use of credit? I don’t think so. And how, exactly, would capping interest rates hurt you?

That’s what usually happens to me.

The guy who answered the phone could not have been less helpful, plus he was a liar. I asked him if he had gotten other calls about this and he said “no.”

The woman who answered at Barney Frank’s office said she would certainly pass along my support for Congresswoman Edwards’ amendments to cap interest rates.

Called Donna Edwards office to thank them for all their great work. I mentioned the credit card amendments and that we need more Democrats like Donna.

I have a problem even with Donna Edwards’s amendments. A 10% spread? When banks were regulated (before Carter’s bank deregulation bill and Reagan’s extensions to it) banks by regulation operated on a 3-point spread. A credit card rate of 7% was seen as usurious. Now on credit cards, we are approaching a 30-point spread.

A ten percent cap, while a step in the right direction, is not what our negotiating target should be.

How the heck are we going to ever buy our country back?

Beyond me how a representative of the people puts money first – before principle. Time to get to work on TERM LIMITS!

Can we start an activist group to continue the crusade for better terms for credit card holders. And since for years the accepted cap was at 18 percent, we can name the campaign “18 is enough.” How do we get started?

I don’t understand why these pages are not filled with rage. Are Democrats so badley traumatized or is it that they just don’t care?

I think someone needs to remind Congress, as well as the bank mismanagers, that their lifestyles are being paid for by the folks, all over the country, with the pitchforks and torches. And you can bet that the housekeepers and gardeners know where they live, too.

Do they really want another revolution?

(One of my friends was telling me about writing a check on an account at one place, to an account at another, and being told by the second bank, a Big Name Institution, that there would be a two week hold on the funds. I could see that if it was cross-country snailmail, but they don’t do it that way any more – it’s really obvious that they’re trying to milk the float. I told her tow write the bank’s president/CEO/customer service management and tell them exactly why she’ll be avoiding them.)

If indeed the republicans are a southern regional party for southern baptists, why can’t we create a progressive party opposition the democrats in the over 3 regions?

good move. Let’s also encourage people to close accounts with the bad banks and open accounts with their local credit unions. My father just dumped Wells Fargo thank goodness.

me too. Remember Obama was supposed to be better than dlc Clinton. I think the neocons cover all their bases so you have look at actual records and not just assume that because they are running against a certain blue dog, they are not blue dogs.