The level of entitlement that bailed out banks are displaying is nothing short of stunning. First, they make bad decisions and bad investments. Arguably, these investments caused our current economic crisis; at a minimum, they were a major contributing factor.
Then, we learned that bailed out bank CEOs were giving themselves nice bonuses and taking themselves on nice vacations with the billions of tax dollars that I and other hard working Americans had no choice but to give them.
Now, they're planning on sticking it to me again, this time in the form of even higher than the sky-high interest rates they were already charging on credit cards. Apparently they are so cash strapped that they have to pass the costs on to their customers. Thousands of credit card holders are getting letters giving them very short notice that their interest rates could skyrocket to as much as 30%, or that they will be assessed a $10 monthly fee for carrying a balance for too long. I guess our tax dollars just weren't enough to cover their lavish lifestyles.
I know that the answer to this problem is to not use their ridiculous credit cards. But tell that to the millions of laid-off, cash strapped Americans like Louis Martinez, who according to a recent LA Times column is carrying about $45,000 in debt on credit cards after his wife's illness several years ago cut their family's income in half. "I've never missed a payment," Martinez said. "But with the way things are now, I wonder every day how I'm going to get through the month."
The real answer is for these bank CEOs to start owning up to their mistakes and stop gouging customers. I plan to tell them so, and I hope you'll do the same.