Obama Talks To Credit Card Company CEOs

April 23. 2009

This is a follow up to previous Judiciary Report articles on terrible credit card interest rates contributing to the financial crisis and the fact that said issue needed to be addressed: 

September 26. 2008: "Credit card companies need to be reined in, limiting their ability to charge such unreasonable interest rates, it virtually guarantees a lifetime of financial servitude. There are people in America with credit cards that bear a 37% interest rate. That’s ridiculous."

September 4. 2008: "America's financial crisis should have been dealt with via containment by way of reduced spending, less outsourcing, home loan restructuring, lower credit card interest rates, tax cuts for lower income citizens and most importantly, end that money draining Iraq war as soon as possible, not extend it for 3 1/2 more years, as was announced recently.

March 17. 2008: At this point there are probably more people in America with bad credit than good. You do realize that? That's another thing, you need to regulate credit card interest fees. Is there any wonder people are always in debt when you have credit card companies charging 27% and 37 % interest.

Today, president Barack Obama invited the CEOs of a dozen credit card companies to the White House to talk business. The main topic of discussion is high interest rates draining U.S. consumers' wallets.

Larry Summers (left)

One of president Obama's economic advisers, Larry Summers, fell asleep during said meeting, taking a little involuntary snooze.

Obama Calls for an End to 'Abusive' Credit Card Lending

After Meeting With Credit Card Execs, Obama Lays Out Goals to Help Consumers

April 23, 2009 - Surrounded by some of the country's top credit card company executives, President Obama today called for an end to "unfair rate increases," "abusive fees" and "confusing terms and conditions" facing American consumers.

Obama meets with credit card execs to make case for more consumer protections. "I think there has to be strong and reliable protections for consumers -- protections that ban unfair rate increases and forbid abusive fees and penalties," Obama said. "The days of anytime, any-reason rate hikes and late fee traps have to end."

Obama spoke at the White House today, following a meeting with executives from more than a dozen companies, including American Express and U.S. Bancorp.

Top White House brass were also in attendance, including economic adviser Larry Summers, who fell asleep during Obama's remarks, according to a White House press pool report...

http://abcnews.go.com