BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

When is someone going to put a stop to the screwing the banks are giving to the citizens? First we bail them out to save them. That wasn’t enough to satisfy the greed. They continue to raise credit card interest, even on people who pay on time and stay below the limits.

The Wall Street rollercoaster is climbing today. At last peek it was up 579 points. The traders and investors must be happy. On a promise to “fix” the banks by giving them all the money they want and can use, it seems that those who still have money can’t wait to get back on the carnival ride.

So, what about Main Street? The infusion of cash into the banks is supposed to make life better and build confidence in the financial system. It seems to have motivated Wall Street. My question is what is it going to do for Main Street?

We have been told that we should not expect overnight miracles. I doubt anyone thought they would get up this morning and life would be as it was last year this time. But, businesses are still closing. Not only the small mom and pop shops that couldn’t make it when they went weeks without sales, but more of our manunfacturers are closing the doors, laying off thousands within a 100 mile radius of where I sit. Unemployment is on the rise, competing with the rising cost of food.

As I look around I see houses that have already been foreclosed. I see people who are without jobs, waiting to see how the unemployment benefits work out for them. Perhaps, some people will be spared the loss of their homes under the new plan, whatever it is. But, what about those people who have already lost their jobs and can’t pay their bills? What about those people who have already lost their houses? What about those people who have seen the interest on their credit card debt double and in some cases triple in the last few months? Who is going to help them?

Infusing the banks with cash is not going to help someone who has lost his home. Sure, the credit market has been “seized up” as Washington insiders like to say. But, if a family has lost its home, it has lost any chance of getting credit for years to come. If a family gets behind on its bills and most certainly many have, their credit score has gone down the drain. Freeing up the credit market does nothing for them. Many of them now find themselves unemployed, unable to get a loan, unable to rent an apartment in some cases because of a low credit score and if they have a credit card they have seen the interest rates suck the last drop of blood from them.

The fact is that some have already fallen through the cracks and it’s hard to see where any of this cash infusion is going to help them. And, if Congress doesn’t do something to put a lid on the interest banks can charge on credit card debt, we are going to be right back to square one.

The taxpayers have been asked to bailout the banks to save the system. So, while our tax dollars are being thrown at the banks in the same shameless manner our government dropped plane loads of money over Afghanistan, the banks have moved on to Plan B… raise the interest rates on credit cards to the maximum.

So, to Congress and Henry Paulson and all the greedy banks, thanks for the jar of vaseline. But, did you have to put sand in it?