Possibly the biggest story today in terms of its impact on most Americans’ lives is that as part of its war on junk fees, the Biden administration announced an $8 cap on late fees charged by credit card issuers that have more than a million accounts. These companies hold more than 95% of outstanding credit card debt. Currently, fees average $32, and they fall on more than 45 million people. The White House estimates that late fees currently cost Americans about $25 billion a year. The rule change will save Americans about $10 billion a year.
The administration also announced a “strike force” to crack down on “unfair and illegal pricing.” Certain corporations raised prices as strained supply chains made it more expensive to make their products. But after supply chains were fixed and their costs dropped, corporations kept consumer prices high and passed on record profits to their shareholders. The strike force will encourage federal agencies to share information to enable them to identify businesses that are breaking the law.
Banking organizations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce came out swinging. Executive vice president […]
The mechanisms holding capitalism to account in this country are broken, and have been for decades.As the economy became financialized starting in the 1970’s banks and corporations began to weld increased power as governmental officials, both Democrat and Republican looked the other way. I mark the start of the war on the middle class from the time that Ronald Reagan was successful in eliminating the deduction of credit card interest from your taxes. ( And the firing of the air traffic controllers). Yes dear reader, there actually was a time that middle class Americans could enjoy a tax cut associated with their consumerism. From that point forward the breaks have been off corporate exploitation of workers. The manifestation of a fight against these fees is a very small step toward reversing decades of poor policy decisions – by both parties. What has occured is that corporate taxation has shrivelled, while the average tax burden of middle class workers has expanded, without a marked increase in wages. This has been a feature of the system, not a bug.