December 18, 2008
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News: The Changing Tide of Regulation.
Days are numbered for Mr. McCain's "Deregulate, deregulate, deregulate!" philosophies. Guess it was a bad policy. All the King's lobbyists and all the King's men could not stop the government from finally taking the reins of our runaway corruption. The first major evidence came today, starting with the credit card industry. So many of Mr. Obama's early initiatives were centered around the government making things change, that the very suggestion of his success were in serious doubt. The healthcare industry was considered to be an insurmountable obstacle to ever fixing our nation's health insurance/care crisis. Indeed, the republican platform was to not only deregulate the little bit there was, but to empower the industry to do what ever they wanted. The first serious increase in regulation is hatching today in regards to the credit card industry. These new credit card regulations are said to be the most sweeping in decades.
The most significant note here may be the turning of the tides. The clear shift in direction from blaming the credit card consumers and educating them on what they ‘can do' over to telling industry what they ‘can't do'. Most of the regulatory agencies are still managed by the same republicans who have turned a blind eye over the last eight years. Bank financial regulation specialist for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Brian Gardner, comments: "Eighteen months ago the Fed was focused on disclosure and transparency, and now they're coming out with a prescriptive, rules-based guidance. It's a whole different world." It is believed that mortgage and credit card lending are just the only steps in reforming our economy. Even more legislation in these areas is in the planning for next year.
Consumer advocates like co-founder and legislative affairs director of "Consumer Federation of America" (CF of A), Travis Plunkett, argues that changes are necessary to improve the economic stability of millions of families. Sharp increases in interest rates, can have a devastating effect on financial stability for credit card holders. They get buried just keeping up with payments. Case in evidence is the 24% jump of 60-day delinquencies since August. According to Fitch's latest Retail Credit Card Index findings, they have reached 4.8%.