Plastic surgery

The horrendous bullshit credit card companies have been allowed to get away with for years is astounding. The Federal Reserve seems ready to curb some of the more outrageous nonsense. No more calculating per month finance charges based on two months of acitivity, no more jacking up interest rates 50 percent or more for paying a bill a day late. Of course, these are only proposals:

Consumer groups, while applauding regulators' efforts to crack down on unfair credit card practices, say they worry that the final rule will be watered down in Congress amid pressure from the banking industry.

Credit cards have disfigured the American economy. They are the seed from which the cancerous mortgage crisis grew.