Financial Product Safety Commission

Those poor Republicans. No matter how hysterical they get, no matter how much they shriek and shout (don’t those spewfucks ever get laryngitis?), there’s always something else to get their panties in a wad. There’s always another threat to The America They Grew Up In.

Republicans already have their hands full battling Socialized Medicine and that treehugging energy legislation that Obama is pushing. And now their latest hissy fit: the proposed Financial Product Safety Commission.

This article was written by Bob Sullivan, author of Gotcha Capitalism.

This will be the first new federal consumer protection agency since the 1930s. The Financial Product Safety Commission will take over some of the jobs that existing agencies have been neglecting. The FDIC, Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Trade Commission and National Credit Union Administration will all have some of their responsibility and authority transferred to this new agency.

Gail Hillebrand of Consumers Union said consumer protection has been split among all of those agencies, and each one has passed the buck to somebody else. “It's a reflection of the degree to which those folks haven't done the job. Consumer protection is too important to be the orphan in the regulatory system. It has been everybody's last priority.”

Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd will be introducing legislation in the House and Senate respectively. This agency will have the power to:

Review new contracts (e.g. credit card terms of service agreements) and demand that these contracts be clearly written;

Require banks to store and share information that would help consumers compare terms and conditions;

Issue subpoenas to examine bank records when a complaint is being investigated;

Allow state governments to enact even tougher consumer protection laws; and

Extract fines — anywhere from a thousand to a million dollars per day — against banks who violate these rules.

Works for me.

Needless to say, the banking industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are drawing up their battle plans. They’ve instructed their prostitutes in Congress to bend over and gyrate like they’ve never gyrated before, and they’re preparing a ton of sleazy TV commercials.

Since the health insurance lobby has had so much success with their phony “grassroots” organizations, maybe the banking industry will try the same thing. Get ready for some more of those spontaneous demonstrations. Millions of everyday Americans will suddenly fly into a rage at the thought of “Socialized Banking!” “Keep those bumbling government bureaucrats out of MY bank account!”

Court Rules Against Gouging by Cell Phone Carriers

A judge has ruled that Ford Motor Company can no longer penalize you for trading in your Ford and buying a Chevy instead. And Safeway can’t make you pay a fine if you go across the street and shop at Albertsons.

Of course those two things never happened. But this is what cell phone companies have been doing for years. And a California judge has finally ruled against this legalized extortion. Sprint Nextel has to refund $18 million to its ex-customers who paid early termination fees. Sprint was also ordered NOT to try collecting $55 million worth of fines from their other ex-customers who refused to bend over and pay the termination fee.

A small step for common sense. Finally. The ruling came from Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw. Now that the first domino has fallen, other states will hopefully issue similar decisions.

These early termination fees are just a small part of what Bob Sullivan calls Gotcha Capitalism. Hidden fees and surcharges, booby traps hidden in the fine print on page 87 of a contract — what kind of cesspool have we sunk into? Capitalism used to be about merchants competing with each other to see who could sell the best product at the best price. Now it’s all about who can be the sleaziest douchebag of them all.

If these slippery practices are “capitalism,” then it’s also capitalism when a mechanic doesn’t do any work on your car, but tells you “OK, I rebuilt the carburetor, put in a new U-Joint and replaced all the fluids. That’ll be $1200.”

Sprint and other carriers are trying to get the FCC to come up with a federal mandate. An FCC ruling would override all state laws and invalidate all state court decisions. How convenient.

That’s funny, “States’ Rights!” used to be the conservatives’ favorite slogan. What happened?

cross-posted at Bring It On!