There is no glee to be had in the passage of the odious bankruptcy bill, but there is some amusing fallout.
In response to Paul Krugman's NYT article, this is what came down in Freeperville:
- I usually disagree with Krugman, and sometimes find him disingenuous and tendentious, but I agree with each and every word he wrote in this Op Ed piece.
Credit Card companies know the risks when they extend credit, and induce the spendtrift who don't read the fine print to get sucked into the quicksand. BK and a fresh start is not only something I think if fundamentally moral and right, but it also is the only real curb there is on credit card companies just going hog wild, and leading some folks into lifelong peonage as Krugman would put it.
I am a Republican, and if I were in the Senate, I would have been the sole Pubbie to vote no on cloture with respect to this turkey.
(jump)
- I have to agree. Conservatism must mean something more than simply doing what pleases big business.
- Ditto.
I even wrote Krugman to tell him so.
I hope the Republicans are pleased with themselves--they are going to pay a huge political price for this down the line.
- This bill is a hugely bad idea -- in my opinion -- because it's going to play havoc with the banking system. Again, just my thoughts -- but I see two waves hitting the banks. The first is the massive number of people who'll rush to file Chap 11 under the old rules. Some of these people would have been on the fence and continued to pay off the bills, but since this is the last chance to walk away, many of them will take the opportunity.
Secondly, once people start failing in a significant way -- and it's gonna happen. They're gonna start losing their homes. Banks are not only going to end up with a lot of homes to sell (something they don't like to do) but if the numbers reach a certain level (as yet to be determined) it's going to drive prices down, so the banks end up upside down on all those mortgages.
This bill seems to be a real exercise in being real careful what you wish for.
- The bait and switches credit companies play with consumers, like with little clauses that if they are late in paying anything to anybody, then the APR on their credit card goes up from 7% to 27% even if they are not late in paying the credit card company, and simply legion and amazing. American Express plays the game of sending your bill quite close to when the grace period ends to pay it without incuring an interest charge. Sometimes the period is so short, I have to send the check in the mail rather than pay via Quicken, which has a four business day delay. And it goes on and on.
The credit card industry makes its money off slimer tactics, and preying on the less sophisticated and disciplined. They need to be punished, and then punished some more.
- A bank giving unsecured loans is much like someone playing the stock market.
Prepare to see even more 'sweet deals' for youngsters who don't know better and other crap that's gonna really come back to haunt Republicans.
The credit companies are probably drooling like mad wolves at the prospect of offering desperate people way more credit than they otherwise ever would consider.
This is a nightmare political bill. I wish it at least had a 5 year sunset clause in it.
- It's a tough bill. You know, it almost makes me think that it might have been the creditors (and not the debtors) who won last November.
And isn't it fitting that it should be our national political leaders who sense that the time has come for Americans to understand that we just can't go on spending more than we're bringing in? ;-)
This is the second time in less than a week that the Freepers have turned into foaming socialists -- the other time being when Hagel suggested raising the Social Security retirement age. There is no silver lining to this rancorously dark cloud. But at least it begins to give the Democrats a vision of the chink in the Republican armor for 2006, as the kook-aid drinkers start to realize their leaders don't really give a flip about the social issues they used as cattle prods in the last election, their real agenda is to pillage the country like a bunch of angry Huns.
The wingers may be credulous, but they sure as shit don't want to be poor.
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