The Hightower Report

Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights

It's hard to feel much love for bankers, but they're sure not helping themselves right now. Even as they've been clamoring for a massive bailout from you and me, they've been lobbying furiously in Washington to kill a bill that would make them give a small break to us.

It's called the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, and it would put a halt to some of the nastiest tactics that these credit-card hucksters use against their own customers. For example, they now jack up the interest rate on our cards whenever they feel like it – bam! – the rate can jump from 16% to 21% overnight, and we don't even know about it. The Bill of Rights, however, would make them have the courtesy to give us a 45-day notice.

Another, especially annoying gouge is the late-fee surprise attack. Many times, your monthly bill arrives only a few days before it's due. If you're ill, traveling, or otherwise unable to jump right on it – bam, again! – you're socked with a hefty late fee. Rather than mailing our bills only 14 days before the due date, as banks now do, the Bill of Rights more reasonably requires that they mail bills to us 25 days before they are due.

These steps of simple fairness do not impose any unbearable burdens on the banking behemoths, and – who knows? – the changes might even cause customers to view credit-card issuers as something slightly friendlier than profit-grubbing predators.

But, oh, the bankers are in full howl against this attempt to impose even a basic level of corporate civility toward consumers. Incredibly, they've labeled the bill "unfair" – even as they count their billions in bailout funds taken from our pockets.

Despite bankers' army of lobbyists, however, the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights has passed the House and is pending in the Senate. For information, contact Consumer Federation of America: 202/387-6121.

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Wall Street Bank Robbers

Willie Sutton, who said he robbed banks because "that's where the money is," had nothing on Richard Fuld.

He's the Wall Street whiz who headed Lehman Bros. and moved the company heavily into gimmicky investment schemes based on risky subprime mortgages. When those home loans began going bad, so did Lehman Bros. – so bad that it collapsed into bankruptcy on Sept. 15.

That was, of course, disastrous for Lehman's employees and for its shareholders. On paper, Fuld also lost money, for his stock options were vaporized in the crash caused by his own reckless policies. Unlike regular folks, however, the CEO had long enjoyed a fat salary, banking nearly half-a-billion bucks in compensation in the years prior to Lehman's demise. Indeed, last year alone, while his company was teetering, Fuld raked in about $45 million in personal pay. That's more than $20,000 an hour. For failure!

He got his, even though thousands of people suffered. In fact, he's still presiding over the remnants of Lehman as it goes through bankruptcy.

But what about all those other Wall Street greed-heads we're now being forced to bail out? No problem, say the White House and Congress, for our bailout bill contains a populist provision to limit the pay of CEOs who get taxpayer funds. Good idea! But the actual language of the bill has a couple of supersized loopholes punched in the executive-pay provision. First, the limit applies only to a few banks that the government will actually take over, not those it simply bails out. Worse, the CEO pay restriction doesn't affect existing pay arrangements. So top honchos who have been wallowing in obscenely high pay packages, complete with golden parachutes, can continue getting those riches, even as they draw bailout money from you and me.

Despite populist pretensions, Washington's "reformers" are still letting CEOs rob the bank.

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For more information on Jim Hightower's work – and to subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown – visit www.jimhightower.com. You can hear his radio commentaries on KOOP Radio, 91.7FM, weekdays at 10:58am and 12:58pm.