Third World America - Arianna Huffington [71]
The foreclosure prevention program has worked so well in Philadelphia, it has spread to Boston, Pittsburgh, Cook County, Prince George’s County, Louisville, and New Jersey.60 We should take this model and apply it on a national level.
Until we do, we’ll need to rely on officials like Judge Rizzo and Judge Arthur Schack of the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, described by the New York Times as “a judicial Don Quixote, tilting at the phalanxes of bankers, foreclosure facilitators and lawyers who file motions by the bale.”61 Judge Schack regularly refuses banks’ petitions for foreclosure if every “i” is not dotted and every “t” is not crossed. “If you are going to take away someone’s house,” he told the Times, “everything should be legal and correct. I’m a strange guy—I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”
His humanity—and his rulings—should become a national model.
GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
We also need to protect middle-class Americans from all the tricks and traps being set by credit card companies and banks. And make no mistake: While the new credit card reform law that took effect early in 2010 reined in some of the industry’s most egregious practices, credit card companies are working overtime to come up with new ways to separate us from our money. So the game of “catch you because I can” continues.
Of course, our elected officials made sure to include some banking lobbyist—designed loopholes in the legislation. For example, the new law still allows promotional teaser interest rates that hook in new customers for a short period of time—before the far higher real rate kicks in.62
As Elizabeth Warren sees it, “That’s exactly the sweet spot for the credit card companies. It’s the person who can just barely make it, who’s lost a job, who’s having trouble finding another job, diligently tries to pay, and struggles to pay.63 Boy, that’s the one you want. And that’s the one you want to hit with 29 percent interest.… Those are staggeringly profitable accounts. I mean, that’s the big bucks. That’s where it happens.”
According to the new law, the credit card issuer needs to give a forty-five-day notification before it raises interest rates.64 But you must stop using the card if you refuse to accept the new rate. And the banks, of course, know the havoc it would create in most peoples’ lives to have to regularly close down their credit cards and seek new ones. However soul sapping it may be, you have to read all the stuff that comes from your credit card company—including the small print about service fees on top of late fees on top of “inactivity” fees. If you can, set up automatic bill pay so you don’t miss a payment. Because fees account for 39 percent of credit card issuers’ revenue, the banks will keep dreaming up new ways to trick us that are not covered, or even contemplated, by existing laws.65
And the new law doesn’t prevent banks from gouging their credit card customers with sky-high interest rates.66 Senator Bernie Sanders, whose attempts at capping credit card interest rates have been voted down by his colleagues, says, “When banks are charging thirty percent interest rates, they are not making credit available.67 They are engaged in loan sharking”—also known as usury.
Throughout history, usury has been decried by writers, philosophers, and religious leaders. Aristotle called usury the “sordid love of gain” and a “sordid trade.”68 Thomas Aquinas said it was “contrary to justice.”69 In The Divine Comedy, Dante assigned usurers to the seventh circle of hell.70 Deuteronomy 23:19 says, “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother.” Ezekiel 18:8–13 compares a usurer to someone who “is a shedder of blood … defiled his neighbor’s wife … oppressed the poor and needy … [and] committed abomination.” The Koran is equally unequivocal: