Who Killed the Cap on Credit Card Interest Rates?

Photo by flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andresrueda/3027534098" target="blank">Andres Rueda</a>.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Public support for a crackdown on shady credit card lending practices is practically stratospheric right now, and yet Congress still couldn’t bring itself to buck the industry and crack down on exorbitant interest rates. An amendment in the Senate that would have capped interest rates at 15 percent failed decisvely, winning just 33 votes. (The only Republican to back the measure was Charles Grassley; you can see the full list of senators who shot down the proposal here.)

James Ridgeway has the rundown on Congress’ half-hearted feint at credit card reform here. And don’t miss Kevin Drum’s posts on the industry’s lousy business practices and its trusty friends in Congress.     

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate