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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:45 am Post subject: Obama's first days |
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http://www.minyanville.com/articles/Credit-cof-v-cards-mastercard-mc/index/a/20716
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Higher interest rates on a current balance will be permitted only under specific conditions such as the expiration of a promotional rate, late payment or a variable rate. Interest rates on new transactions can be increased only after 45 days' advance notice.
There will be no more universal default, nor raising interest rates based on a customer's payment history with utility companies or other credit issuers not affiliated with the bank issuing the credit card.
Payments will be due at least 21 days after the bill is mailed or delivered. Credit card issuers will no longer be able to set early morning deadlines for payments.
When a different interest rate is applied to various balances, payments will be applied first to the balance with the higher rate or divided proportionally.
Customers exceeding their credit limit will no longer be hit with a fee if a hold has been placed on their account. This routinely happens to customers who reserve a hotel or rental car when merchants place a hold on the account for the entire amount to be billed several weeks or months in the future.
Finance charges on a balance due will be computed on charges in the current cycle rather than going back to the previous billing cycle. Double-cycle billing hits customers who pay their balance in full one month, but not the next.
Terms will be disclosed in plain English. |
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/01/cardholders-bill-of-rights-and-other.html
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| Those are very significant changes. Banks got everything they wanted under Bush, but are now about to see it all reversed. I never understood the legality of a self modifying contract (one that allows one party to change the terms at will on a notice in fine print that the other party would likely never read). |
So far, so good. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azQJo_wu7f64
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Obama Freezes Pay, Toughens Ethics and Lobbying Rules
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he�s freezing the pay of senior White House staff employees who make more than $100,000 a year and imposing new ethics rules designed to diminish the influence of lobbyists.
Obama also said he is ordering federal agencies to make it easier for the public to get documents and information from the government.
�We are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege,� Obama said, addressing his White House staff and Cabinet on his first full day in office. �It�s not about advancing yourself or your corporate clients.�
The president�s directives were among his first official acts and preceded meetings with his top advisers on the two major challenges facing his administration: the faltering economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In all, Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential directives aimed at making government more open and accountable and taking steps toward fulfilling some of his campaign promises.
The president said that when top White House aides leave government, they are barred from lobbying �for as long as I am president, and there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.�
Lobbying Limits
A lobbyist who joins the Obama administration also is forbidden from working on issues they previously were involved with, he said. Any person who leaves the administration will be barred from lobbying the government for two years.
�We need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely and lets them use their time in public service� to promote their own interests when they leave, the president said. Government hiring, he said, will henceforth be based on qualifications, competence and experience, �not political connections.�
Regarding the pay freeze, which will leave pay levels for senior positions where they were under President George W. Bush, Obama said he is acting because �families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.�
There are more than 100 White House staff positions under the office of the president that pay more than $100,000 annually, including chief of staff, White House counsel and chief speechwriter.
Disclosure
To promote transparency in government, Obama said federal agencies and departments should err on the side of disclosing information rather than keeping it from the public when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Under the directive, a White House statement said, three officials must produce an �open government� manual within 120 days. Attorney General designate Eric Holder is ordered within the same time frame to develop new guidelines for greater disclosure.
�For a long time there has been too much secrecy in this city,� Obama said. �The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over.�
The move was another signal that Obama is making a clear break from the former administration. Bush tightened rules limiting disclosures after the Sept. 11 attacks and came under fire from Democratic members of Congress for withholding documents.
Executive Privilege
Obama also decreed that only he would have the power to assert executive privilege, so as to �limit its potential for abuse.� That may be a reference to former Vice President Dick Cheney�s assertion of executive privilege in keeping documents from Congress. His actions triggered lawsuits from historians and open government advocates.
The new president also is meeting today with economic advisers amid investor concern over a bank-rescue plan and the new administration�s efforts to confront what Obama has called �the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.�
He follows that with a session involving his military and national security advisers. Among them will be Army General David Petraeus, who commands U.S. forces in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. path forward in Iraq will be a major topic.
Middle East
Obama, according to spokesman Robert Gibbs, went to the Oval Office at 8:35 a.m. and spent his first 10 minutes there alone. He made telephone calls earlier to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Jordanian King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the White House.
As part of the transition, Obama last night ordered federal agencies to hold off on pending regulations made in the last days of the Bush administration. The order blocks proposals including those to ease emission requirements for factories and require some foods to be labeled by country of origin.
The administration also sought a 120-day pause in military war-crimes tribunals of suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Obama has vowed to close the facility and revamp the system for holding and trying enemy combatants. |
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