Business and Personal Mastery…It is Possible!
Business and Personal Mastery…It is Possible!
Home / The New Economy / Money-ism Just Can’t Control Itself- Again!
Isn't that Illegal?
As I’ve written before, “the market” is driven by self interest. So philosophically, I ask, how can it “correct” in any direction but selfishness. In other words, when one party puts its interests above another, how is that correction? Isn’t that always a “win/lose” proposition?
The answer is: It’s NOT a correction as in “for the betterment of all involved.” Especially when one party is a near monopoly and relies on a legal system that favors those who have millions to spend on it. It’s bullying selfishness. Like when your bank charges you an overdraft fee mistakenly and then tells you we can’t offer you a refund “unless you ask first.” So they make the mistake but YOU are obligated to catch it and demand they fix it. THEY are not obligated to do anything. Isn’t that stealing?
Here’s another in the hall of shame:
Until recently, Brian Woods of Akron, Ohio was a happy Chase Bank customer. Several years ago he accepted a promotional offer to use the bank’s “Lower than Prime” balance transfer checks to move high interest debt to his Chase credit card. The Chase solicitation promised: “No tricks. No gimmicks. Just savings.”
The offer was straightforward. Woods would pay a 3 percent transfer fee and get an amazingly low interest rate of 3.99 percent APR “until the balance is paid off.” Woods says he paid “on time, every time” in order to keep that interest rate.
Woods became an angry Chase customer when he received his January statement and saw a $10 “monthly service charge” had been added. The bank also bumped up his monthly minimum from 2 percent to 5 percent sending his payment from $140 to $300. And…