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In recent years, banks, credit card companies and others in the financial industry have been pushing high-cost credit on consumers in a reckless reach for bigger profits.Some lenders have lured new customers by offering low introductory interest rates. For example, a few years ago Chevy Chase Bank of Maryland offered customers a low introductory interest…
Washington, D.C. — In a town not known for its candor, Chairman Norman E. D’Amours of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) told an assemblage of credit union professionals from around the country that “credit unionism in the U.S. seems to be drifting toward becoming a not-for-profit banking sector like mutual banks.” D’Amours, a former…
Nashville, TN — Here in the heart of country music land, the nation’s insurance and hospital lobby is testing out a new tune of privilege in the form of Senate Bill 2283. Under the pretense of encouraging these companies to obey the law, this proposed legislation would shield a mass of internal documents from the…
It is annual bonus time on Wall Street. The Washington Post reports that these staggering bonuses paid to brokers and executives are viewed even by those who receive them as “absurd” and “outrageously” large. There is so much surplus money around that, the Post says, that “$10 million apartments in Manhattan, $3 million beach houses…
In a recent New York Times column, Frank Rich bemoaned the absence in public life of anyone who has the “standing to lead us to judgment of him?” (meaning Clinton and his current personal imbroglio). Rich ticked off established names in the press, politics, celebrity clergy, who no longer qualify for a variety of tarnished…
From The Nader Letter Feb./March 1998 Washington Rule # 1 — Never underestimate the ability of Congress to repeat its mistakes. This rule is being played out with a vengeance in the mad rush to ram the financial deregulation package through the House of Representatives before the spring recess. The “act now, think later” stampede…
The release by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) of shocking documents by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company that focused on the youth market for cigarette addiction again teaches groups too willing to settle for too less with this industry that political momentum and public opinion are still growing. Every month, the tobacco companies are losing ground in…
The availability of bank credit and services is the life blood of local communities. When banks curtail loans to small businesses, homeowners and development and housing projects, neighborhoods can deteriorate rapidly. That’s why community groups are concerned when big multi-state banks announce plans for mergers and acquisitions. It means less competition and the potential for…
From The Nader Letter Jan. 1998 In recent years, banks, credit card companies and others in the financial industry have been pushing high-cost credit on consumers in a reckless reach for bigger profits. Ed Furash, a banking consultant in Washington, told the New York Times that the entire consumer credit business has been engaged in…
In the pantheon of 20th Century American leaders, Esther Peterson, who passed away Saturday at the age of 91, occupied a uniquely versatile place. Few if any individuals made so many significant contributions for so long on behalf of workers, consumers and women in so many diverse arenas-including government, civic and business. Her range included…