Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Obama's Creeping Interventionism

Bank of America announced last week that it will charge its debit card users a $5 monthly fee beginning in early 2012, other banks have followed with similar announcements.

The bank implemented the fee as a result of the Durbin Amendment, a provision of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that set limits on the fees banks could charge retailers for swiping their debit cards.

President Obama signed the legislation, which also created, Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now, the President is blasting banks for instituting the fee, which was caused by the legislation he signed, and is signaling he wants more micromanagement of the banking sector:


This is exactly why we need this Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that we set up that is ready to go. This is exactly why we need somebody who's sole job it is to prevent this kind of stuff from happening. ... You can stop it because if you say to the banks, ‘You don't have some inherent right just to – you know, get a certain amount of profit. If your customers – are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently.
Got that? Regulation has resulted in the $5.00 fee, now Obama wants even more micromanagement and regulation in response to the initial regulation.

Creeping intervetionism before our eyes.

4 comments:

  1. Banks don't have a right to certain profits, true. But consumers don't have the right to certain "savings" either.

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  2. Is this Bureau going to choose which bank we switch to as well (to help us avoid these pure profit transactions, of course)?

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  3. I wouldn't call it creeping! It's damn near galloping!

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  4. What part of that $5 goes to the political terrorist's re-election fund?

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