The Card Game.....

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Registered: 03-18-2000
The Card Game.....
3
Mon, 11-30-2009 - 9:35am

This is one of the most informative programs I've ever seen. I recorded it when it first aired & watched it yesterday. Amongst other information it covers the new consumer protection which, BTW, doesn't limit the amount of interest CC companies charge.


Intro.:  FRONTLINE | "The Card Game" | PBS


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se25Q8A6Ts8


Investigating the massive consumer loan industry and what's ahead for consumers and banks -- a FRONTLINE-New York Times co-production.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/creditcards/


Must-See Recession-Era TV: "The Card Game" and More


http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/11/24/must-see-recession-era-tv-the-card-game-and-more/?xid=rss-topstories


PBS's "Frontline," which features journalist Lowell Bergman on camera and that awesome, ultra-serious voiceover dude who has the ability to make everything sound like there's some nefarious conspiracy afoot, takes on the credit card industry—again. Also, TV shows on how to sell your stuff for quick cash, and how to endure financial lectures from your parents.


Every consumer is sure to get some insight—and a decent amount of outrage—while watching the Frontline special "The Card Game," which airs tonight on PBS. The best interviews for these Frontline shows are always the former insider who now feels bad about what awful things his company did to customers, and who comes clean on camera and reveals all of the old tricks. In this case, the source is Shailesh Mehta, a former executive of Providian Financial Corporation, described by the NY Times as:



a credit card company that pioneered what calls “penalty pricing” or “stealth pricing.” With disarming candor, Mr. Mehta reviews the tactics that lure new cardholders, many with poor credit records, with promises of no annual fees and initial zero-interest periods, only to squeeze them later with high interest rates and fees lurking in the fine print of their account contracts.


In one the clips you can check out in advance, Mehta basically says that no matter what  legislation Congress cooks up, there is no real way to fully protect consumers and still have a free-market system.


"How do you solve it? I don't know," Mehta says. "Tell me the rules, and then I'll outsmart you all. You tell me the stupid laws, and I'll comply and I'll make money," he says, describing the banker mentality. "Lending money to people is never a difficult exercise. And there are always some desperate people who will take the product."


Frontline also features several everyday consumers who were squeezed by their credit card issuers in one way or another. Per the Times, they include:



Ben Collins, a construction contractor whose small business has been paralyzed by the arbitrary reduction of his firm's credit card limit; Don Bollinger, a rural worker who survived cancer but was forced into bankruptcy after he lost his job and his credit card company doubled the interest rate and minimum payments on his existing balances; and Josette Wermuth, whose debit card's mandatory overdraft “protection” ended up costing her $365 in penalty fees after a $7 pizza purchase left her with a negative account balance.


Among the  trends emerging this holiday season is an increase in shoppers putting away the plastic and  going cash-only. Based on the economy, the job market, and what you'll see on "The Card Game," using cash rather than credit cards is a prudent move.


Also especially of interest to recession-era TV viewers:


Pawn Stars
 The show, which follows the  everyday life of a family pawn shop business in Las Vegas, debuted on the History Channel this past summer, which seems like pretty good timing considering it was a moment when a lot of people were looking around their homes trying to find stuff they could sell for money. A new season of shows starts next week, and there are sure to be plenty more odd characters coming into the store looking to make some cash off of everything from Salvador Dali prints to a  dagger than may or may not be from Vietnam.


Bank of Mom and Dad
Each week, the SOAPnet channel program features a different 20-something woman who is so deep in debt that she is willing to endure her parents (and a "tough love" financial advisor) moving in with her and analyzing every dime she spends. You'd think the opposite move might make more sense, what with huge numbers of people under age 35 being force to move back in with the 'rents. Old episodes are available at  Hulu.

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 11-30-2009 - 12:11pm
Bankers making turkeys out of taxpayers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112403566.html


The nation's bankers have much to be thankful for as they sit down to their turkey dinners on Thursday.


At this time last year, the American financial system was near collapse, rescued only by hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Now the system has stabilized, and the industry is on the verge of a coup that many would have thought impossible a year ago: an escape from any major reform of financial regulations.


On Tuesday, the American Financial Services Association even held a conference call with reporters to update them on its efforts -- successful so far -- to torpedo plans for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would protect people from the sort of lending abuses that led to last year's implosion.


The ASFA, a trade group of credit card issuers, auto-finance companies, mortgage lenders and others leading the fight against the CFPA, took the unusual approach on Tuesday of publicly celebrating the reform's fading prospects.


"This was supposed to be a slam-dunk," crowed Bill Hempler, the group's top lobbyist. But instead, he said, "Democratic members are increasingly having heartburn over CFPA and maybe second thoughts."


House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank's CFPA proposal? "He may have problems either bringing this whole package to the floor or even individual pieces."


Senate banking Chairman Chris Dodd's CFPA proposal? "A number of colleagues are hinting that there was overreaching going on. . . . Folks attribute this to a political ploy for reelection."


Richard Shelby, the Senate banking committee's ranking Republican? "His leadership is keeping the pressure on him not to cut too sweet a deal."


Hempler detailed how various other lawmakers -- Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and, in the House, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and the Congressional Black Caucus -- were causing various problems for the bill. "It looks more and more like Senate banking won't take it up until January or February, and with next year being an election year, that does raise the concern level," Hempler reported with satisfaction. "This could delay the overall effort." Or, with a bit of luck, kill it outright.


The trade group's analysis was astute. But the presentation took a considerable amount of nerve. The AFSA's membership, according to its Web site, includes some of the best-known names of the financial crisis: CIT, CitiFinancial, Countrywide, EquiFirst, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Financial and GMAC. The trade group points out that its members did not directly receive bailouts from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (those went to banks, including some of the AFSA members' parent companies), but it's a safe bet that many of those firms would have failed if the government hadn't intervened to prop up the financial markets.


Now these same companies, suffering from some combination of amnesia and ingratitude, are determined to fight off regulatory efforts to prevent a repeat of the same cycle of bubble, collapse and bailout. Big firms such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America -- direct or indirect beneficiaries of federal bailouts -- are all battling efforts to rein in derivatives. And credit card issuers, facing new regulations scheduled to take effect in February, have responded by increasing their rates and fees.


In Tuesday's conference call, AFSA's executives offered the many familiar reasons why government regulations are bad: The states are doing a good enough job regulating financial services; new fees would be passed on to consumers; it would increase bureaucracy. Hempler even raised the threat of lawsuits as the group's members try to see just how unfair and deceptive they can be without running afoul of the new rules: "It adds a whole new layer of untested language to the unfair-and- deceptive-practice standard that will have to be newly regulated, and ultimately there will probably be litigation that comes out of that."


But the argument most likely to prevail for the financial firms on Capitol Hill was offered by Chris Stinebert, the trade group's chief. "Especially now, when we're in a very, very sensitive time, when the capital markets are just starting to recover," he said, "introducing a high level of uncertainty in the marketplace could be very detrimental."


Or, to put it another way: Don't regulate us now because the economy is still suffering from the mess we made because we weren't regulated the last time. Chutzpah, it appears, is recession-proof.

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Avatar for ddnlj
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 11-30-2009 - 1:45pm

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Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 11-30-2009 - 1:51pm

Or, to put it another way: Don't regulate us now because the economy is still suffering from the mess we made because we weren't regulated the last time. Chutzpah, it appears, is recession-proof.


They'll

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