Donald Trump just announced that he plans to institute a temporary cap of 10% on credit card interest rates "while working Americans catch up."
Sigh. It just doesn't matter what he says, does it? Most likely nobody will bother reporting this. Banks won't bother protesting it. Wonky bloggers like me won't bother explaining why Trump can't do it. Conservatives will mostly ignore the fact that this really is socialism, far worse than Kamala Harris's trivial price gouging proposal. In fact, just the opposite: His enablers will suddenly produce a spate of explanations for why it's a brilliant, far-reaching, and conservative proposal.
Stuff like this is a product of intersectionality: Trump is both mentally declining and willing to say any weird thing that pops into his fevered brain. Everyone knows it, so nobody takes anything he says seriously. He's treated like a five-year-old running for president.
And yet the five-year-old might win because Kamala Harris hasn't outlined her economic policies in enough detail. Crikey.
BY THE WAY: Credit card debt isn't even an especially big issue right now.
"And yet the five-year-old might win because Kamala Harris hasn't outlined her economic policies in enough detail. Crikey."
That's not actually the reason.
True, but no one is allowed to say why.
Media coverage of the 5-year-old is ever so reliable. Today's NY Times (well, two days ago, but it's kept the article at Web-page top) wonders if Trump is "too emotional." That counts as severe criticism for the mainstream media, but still it beats asking if he's senile and not to be trusted with a plug nickel.
“And yet the five-year-old might win because Kamala Harris hasn't outlined her economic policies in enough detail.”
Has Kevin finally concluded it doesn’t matter if Kamala has detailed policies on everything yet? That literally almost nobody undecided at this point cares about policy at all? Or will we get another “Kamala needs to detail exactly what she plans to do on X, Y and Z by sitting down for media interviews” post next week?
Shrug. We all have ideas about what these candidates will do as president based on their track record.
If Trump wins there will be no 10% cap on interest rates, but there will be a major attempt to deport non-citizens who commit any crimes, strong support for Israel, lower taxes, etc. On the downside, probably a big drop in support for Ukraine.
If Harris wins there will be a big push to make transsexuals a protected class, to bring back racial discrimination in college admissions and racial segregation in many parts of American society, a drop in support for Israel, higher taxes, much more open borders, and probably even more restrictions on Ukraine's attempts to defend itself. The only policy area on which she will probably be better than Trump is Ukraine, and even on that she will probably be worse than Biden.
I'll take Trump over Harris.
If Harris wants to pitch that she will not do the things I dislike she needs to make clear commitments in her campaign. Otherwise I will assume the worst based on past track record.
We had 15% unemployment under Trump and were at war every day. Every. Single. Day.
We haven’t been at war for three years under Biden.
We’ve had a recession under every single Republican president since Hoover, and none under Biden, Obama, or Clinton.
We also know that Trump will destroy the planet as quickly as he can for short-term profit.
Republicans will continue to destroy democracy as their fantastically unpopular policies become even less popular, and will manipulate elections to whatever undemocratic degree they must to preserve their power.
Women will be treated as breeding stock, public schools will be gutted, and tax cuts will be lavished on billionaires as everyone else struggles to pay the tariffs (aka middle-class taxes) Trump saddles the country with.
Trump is a deranged sociopath, a criminal rapist who fawns over autocrats.
Harris is not.
Grow up and take some responsibility.
(It’s very telling that your primary concern is that trans people might not be discriminated against. What the hell is wrong with you?)
Amen.
It's an asshole.
Don’t you understand yet, son? Don’t you get it? MF does the things he does because he's a mean whiskey drunk.
With apologies to Clyde Bruckman.
mf & atticus really make one miss mac gruber, huh?
Noted, we are deporting non-citizens who commit crimes, but mostly we want to jail them so they don't commit more.
I don't think I'll try your kool-aid.
It’s a shame that this system doesn’t allow us to block foolish trolls like MF.
Or even click on a thumbs up or in the case thumbs down icon. Given the quality of most comments here I usually want to do a thumbs up and sometimes write a general thumbs up everybody comment. Others resort to a +1 comment.
I guess there are reasons why Kevin uses WordPress and I assume these normal blog comment features aren't available there. I have no idea why he does though. Is this free and others aren't or something?
lol. Delusional idjit.
Did you forget that Trump is also a spy? Do you like that policy of selling secrets to our adversaries?
Apparently you don't dislike someone inciting an insurection and trying to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. I don't usually indulge in ad hominem attacks here but jeebus, can you get it through your thick skull that this is more fiundamental than anything you mentioned ? WTF is wrong with you ?
MF's a mean whiskey drunk who starts the day with a half-point of Old Smokey.
Gross. If he's drinking Ole Smokey, he's not a whiskey drunk. That stuff is pure garbage.
Cheap is his metric of choice here, not good.
Only one candidate said they want to raise taxes, and it ain't Kamala.
Policies really dont matter. Look at the weirdo above who pretends hes waiting for policy specifics, but admits that like most Trumpers, this is all about culture war.
Grab your hood! Scary TRANS at our doorsteps! BLACK PEOPLE IN OUR COLLEGES!! Oh noes!!!
Kevin doesnt seem to get it either. Even in a post that demostrates that so few care about actual policies, he makes an odd comment about Kamala needing to outline policies. Even after he just reminded us that nobody cares about policy. Maybe this was in jest....irony is hard to pick up in written form.
I think Kevin's comment had an element of sarcasm. One of the main drivers of the demand that "Kamala needs to gives us all the details" is from the news media, which wants A Story. Meanwhile, Trump forcefully issues vague promises. When he does give details, they are simplistic and show no understanding of economics, public policy, or the structure of the U.S. government. They wind up completely laughable to anyone with knowledge of the subject but sound attractive to his followers no matter how impractical. The media dutifully reports what he says.
I interpreted Kevin's comment as sarcastic, which it seems several of the commenters here did not.
Or maybe half-sarcastic: “And yet the five-year-old might win because *the media and commentators keep saying* Kamala Harris hasn't outlined her economic policies in enough detail.”
I would also like to endorse reading this sentence of Kevin's as sarcasm/irony.
And honestly, it would be a good idea to have limits of effective rates on lending and caps on interest rates n credit cards because someone with a 15-25% card is basically permanently in debt once they have to carry a balance. It's obscene.
States have usury laws, which is why most credit card companies are based in DE.
Capping interest for people, but not fees retailers have to pay, means everyone will still pay more. Biden-Harris administration has been using anti-trust laws and looking at the credit card industry--not sure their status. They've also been going after predatory lending practices via the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
I suspect the credit card issuers are already maximizing their revenue from merchant fees. Increasing those fees will cause some retailers to simply refuse the cards and others to tack on surcharges for use of credit cards. I would expect that a cap on credit card interest rates would result in the credit card companies tightening up on both who gets a credit card and how high credit limits are, in order to reduce bad debts.
Focus on egg-heads concerns on policies seems to again and again confuse "own focus / interest" with what gets broad voters popular interest.
Regardless, the Interest Rate Cap is something the Democrats if they had the instincts of the Republicans would grab and exploit against him - talk it with the Reporters to "work the Refs" and push and push. Continuous pressure on the narrative. There is an opening.
Whoa. It's almost like he'd like to create a cabinet-level department that would do things in support of, and to protect consumers...like a consumer financial protection bureau?
No, no, noooooo...that's HORRIBLE!!!! We'll replace it with something soooo beautiful, every one is saying it's beautiful, just wait until you see it, ...
Detailed, beautiful plans will released in two weeks...
The thing about his ever-growing penchant for making outlandish promises is: like anything else, they'll likely lose effectiveness. People may even start to mock him on this score. If it starts to penetrate into the wider culture (might be a good skit idea for SNL), we could see the emergence of a full-fledged "Trump the pandering clown" meme that actually ends up costing him votes.
Is this bread or circus? I'm losing track...
I luv the circus bread on a stick. All those beautiful colors!
+1
Note that the chart is generated by calculating an aggregate debt service burden for the whole country and then dividing that by an aggregate disposable personal income for the whole country. The people seeing the increase in disposable personal income may not be those holding the debt.
The St. Louis Fed has a different approach which leads them to a different conclusion: https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2024/may/which-us-households-have-credit-card-debt
"To put this into perspective, the average U.S. household with credit card debt has a balance of around $6,065. In November 2021, the interest rate on this debt was around 15%, meaning that the average indebted household was paying $76 per month in credit card interest. By November 2023, the interest rate had risen to around 21%. Now that same household was paying $106 per month in credit card interest alone, without even paying down the debt’s principal. By way of comparison, interest rates on personal loans over this same period only increased from around 9% to 12%. Households forced to take on even more credit card debt to cover emergency expenses would see their payments grow further still. Households in the lowest decile of the income distribution have the most credit card debt relative to their incomes, making them the least equipped to see their payments go up significantly."
Also - just because the Orange Man advocated it, doesn't mean that its bad. In 1978, in the decision Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., the Supreme Court found that nationally chartered banks can ignore state usury laws (which set caps on interest rates).
Here is Elizabeth Warren's take on Marquette: "[W]e effectively engaged in the single biggest policy change in the credit area, the whole consumer credit area, through an obscure Supreme Court decision interpreting some ambiguous language."
And it's not like the Federal government cannot impose limits on credit card rates. In 1991 New York Senator Al D'Amato, a harsh critic of the credit-card industry, introduced a bill that would have capped credit card interest rates at 14% in response to a suggestion by President George H. W. Bush. The same thing could happen with Trump (though likely will not).
Democrats should try in the Senate--see how many Republicans are on board with Trump's plan.
That would be a great idea. In general, every time the Republicans feint left on economic issues, the Democrats should table a serious proposal and thereby force the Republicans to reveal their fundamental big-business sympathies.
Ahh, but like the immigration bill, it would be bias in the media to reort on it!
the lamestream media don't report on gotcha bills.
(please look away from media coverage of all 63 attempts to repeal obummercare during the obummer regime.)
This doesnt really present a different conclusion. Kevins chart shows a large jump over the same '21-'23 time period.
Its definitely true that at all times, averages dont tell us the individual stories of each person and gloss over wide variances between the measure population. But this is always true, it hasnt suddenly changed in any way.
It can be true that some people are suffering, even if the overall picture is bright.
It's yet another throwaway comment by Trump that reporters will point to as proof he is so populist, but it will never happen.
Cutting credit card interest rates permanently would push banks to dial back on credit card perks or raise merchant processing fees. Those two options have very influential groups who do NOT want to see that happen. Most states struggle to reign in payday lenders, and that's with only a handful of midsized companies lobbying. Upper-middle class people with cash-back and airline mile cards would join up with the retailers associations in a flash.
Trump is willing to spout whatever he thinks helps him in the moment. His follow-through is total trash. And we have a press that just goes along, carrying his water for him.
"Cutting credit card interest rates permanently would push banks to dial back on credit card perks or raise merchant processing fees. ..."
Mostly it would mean not giving credit cards (or high credit limits) to people with mediocre (much less bad) credit ratings. They would have to get by with debit cards.
Just another handful of shit he threw at the wall. And like all the other handfuls, it will slide off. Besides he never has any intentions of doing anything he has proposed.
One of my friends says Trump is a stand up comedian, always trying out new material to see how it flies.
Probably explains some of his otherwise inexplicable popularity, as how often do you get to vote for a stand up comedian?
The media is little more than a meme-generator and click-bait seller these days. At a time America needs a free press and responsible journalism we're getting the opposite, with important issues like the following examined in detail:
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/19/harris-media-strategy-hide-election
Ahh, yes, the candidate who sat down for interviews this week is 'hiding'.
Real journalists wouldn't resort to just-so stories.
https://youtu.be/VRJciXc4UcQ
Is the objection because he won't actually try to do it, can't actually do it, or because it would be a bad idea? Or is it because the suggestion came out of Trump's mouth? Superficially at least (and what about Trump isn't...) the proposal, even if just randomly-tossed spaghetti, is right in Kevin's cheap money wheelhouse.
A bit of web searching suggests that proposing credit card interest rate caps or mechanisms for same is nothing new. For example, but not limited to: https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-warren-merkley-reed-introduce-bill-to-protect-consumers-from-runaway-credit-card-rates/
Or https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/12/heroic-corruption/
I work with several Republicans. Previously, when I have asked about some of the bat sh$$$ statements Trump has made, I get 'yah Trump says crazy stuff. But he is right on the border and China.'
"Restore the SALT deduction". The deduction he got rid of in his 2017 tax bill? lol. I guess there had to be a reason he had a rally in N.Y. recently.
pouring salt on the tax cuts 'n jobs act.
Kevin, what do you mean by "intersectionality"? Because my normal understanding of that word doesn't seem like it would apply here.