John Stossel’s critiques usually aren’t terribly sophisticated, but I still like them (since I’m not even a little sophisticated). He does manage to understand market economics better than almost all of those sophisticated, Ivy League journalists who make up the MSM elite.
This piece is based on analysis done by GMU’s Todd Zywicki on the impact of the new credit card regulations. Sadly, the impact of more regulation is not hard to predict: higher interest rates and less credit availability.
Here are some snips:
People who have limited choices when it comes to credit are not likely to have their situations improved by taking away some of those limited options that they have…”
So the real result of this “consumer” regulation? “Hundreds of thousands of people can’t get cards who used to be able to have cards, and all the rest of us now have to pay more…”
“Just to say they don’t have a credit card doesn’t mean that they don’t have credit,” Zywicki retorts. “They’ll just go to more expensive places — the local payday lender or the local pawn shop.”
Sigh.
PILEUS 