Congress is taking aim at credit cards and their high interest rates.

US credit card debt has soared in recent years to 877.1 billion dollars in 2006, up over 100 billion dollars from 770.5 billion in 2003, according to the Federal Reserve.

“I’m happy to report that some credit card companies have begun the clean-up. But more needs to be done,” said Republican Senator Norm Coleman.

Just say no to too many credit cards!

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Comments

2 Responses to “Credit Cards Under Fire”

  1. Steve Dalton on December 5th, 2007 9:47 am

    One big reason for a surge would be that real estate values leveled off. Many people had been using their homes to cash out refinance every three or four years, taking the cash and paying off auto and credit debt.

    With the leveling off of real estate values over the last 14 months, I bet a lot of people can’t get cash out of their homes.

  2. Chris on December 5th, 2007 6:50 pm

    Hi Steve,

    Very true. We refinanced several times for better rates and to use the equity in our old house for various projects and also to pay off higher interest debt.

    I think the other part of the housing loan bubble is all of the investors who were buying houses to flip with interest only loans in Nevada and other hot markets.

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