Sunday, October 2, 2011

Unintended Consequences...

In my previous career (now I'm saving the world, then I was selling the world good products at a reasonable price), there was an executive I worked with who always warned of 'unintended consequences.'  Over and over again, a manager would make a decision, and the exec would evaluate it based on what would be the result next week, next month, and within the culture of our company.  1) It slowed managers from making game changing decisions, but 2) it taught me to look beyond Stage One (see Thomas Sowell).

Oh by the way, this exec was a HUGE lefty.

Citigroup announced a while back it was going to start charging fees on checking and savings accounts that don't maintain a minimum balance.

Wells Fargo and Chase announced they were going to start charging for direct debit card swipe purchases.

Bank of America just joined the fray.

Why?

You Can't Call It An Unintended Consequence If You Knew It Was Going To Happen  - Peter Suderman Reason.com

"...Traditionally, financial institutions have charged retailers interchange fees for every debit card transaction. Retailers weren't pleased with this and successfully lobbied to have those fees capped at substantially reduced rates. Starting this week, a Dodd-Frank amendment sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin will cut the average per-transaction fee from about 44 cents to roughly 24 cents for large banks..."


"...The Washington Post reports that Durbin issued a statement yesterday arguing that the regulations would help retailers and small businesses, and blasting the new debit card fees as "unfair." But Durbin and other legislators who supported the fee caps were clearly warned about these fees well in advance; they went ahead with the rules anyway. If there's something unfair about the situation, it's that Congress decided to take sides in a big business battle between retailers and banks. Legislators picked the winner—retailers—and consumers ended up as the losers."


What happens when you allow the federal government to force banks to make loans to people who would not qualify if the bank alone made the decision?

What happens when you increase taxes on oil companies?

What happens when we elect guys like this:



(Watch the video all the way through to see that the questioner was a converted lefty)

2 comments:

LL said...

It's obvious that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) takes absolutely no responsibility for Dodd-Frank or the economic meltdown that the nation has faced over the last few years.

When you listen to Barney (a national leader) talk, it's self-evident that we're in deep trouble as a country.

Mrs. K said...

Rep. Frank is ever so typical of the democrats. So rude, so empty ----empty barrels make the most noise---so defensive, so weak minded, so full of hot air!