It’s funny to watch Obama express shock that banks are raising fees on their customers in the wake of new regulations from the “Dodd-Frank” financial overhaul legislation that passed last year. Before this bill was signed into law by Obama, it was widely expected that the increased costs to the banks would result in an increase in fees for consumers.
This is just simple economics–something that most politicians ignore. The government increased the cost of doing business on the banks, and following a very rational pattern, the increased cost will be paid by the consumers.
Here are some funny quotes from Obama on this matter from just the other day (italicized text in parentheses added by me):
“My hope is that you’re going to see a bunch of the banks say this is not good business practice.”
“You can stop it because if you say to the banks: You don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit, if your customers are being mistreated, that you have to treat them fairly and transparently.” (This is probably my favorite quote, because it shows the ignorance of government officials. They believe they are economic wizards when they are indeed economic charlatans–peddling mistruths in the name of getting votes.)
“[this] is exactly why we need somebody whose sole job it is to prevent this kind of stuff from happening.” (So is he suggesting the government will prevent the government from making this happen?)
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamBitely.