PastTense

The Link Between Bankruptcies and Health Care Reform

While it is true the bills making there way through Congress do nothing to control costs and will result in national bankruptcy, the status quo will also have the same result. But at least millions of additional people will have access to health care in the meantime under those bills.

Visa: Well Positioned for Growth

"The growing trend of electronic payments taking over cash"

I would think electronic payments replacing checks would be more important--since checks are a much larger proportion of payments than cash.

Credit Cards: Do the Banks Own the Senate?

The "beleaguered consumer" would be much better off closing his credit card accounts rather than pay heavy interest each month (while I charge as high a percentage of purchases as possible, I do it to get a 1% cash rebate and consumer protection features against unscrupulous merchants--and pay the bill off in full every month).

Credit Card Losses Are the New Bad Mortgages

I used to be under the impression that AMEX had higher standards than the Visa/MC crowd, so the data about similar charge-off rates is surprising. Was I wrong about this, or did AMEX adopt lower standards in the last few years....?

Elephant in the Stress Test Room: Commercial Real Estate Loans

The problem is not just that a lot of banks have a lot of money in commercial real estate loans; the problem is that they also have a huge amount of money in underwater residential mortgages, consumer loans to people who have lost their jobs, business loans to businesses which are losing money...

Late Payments on Credit Cards Reach Record Levels

Well the way credit card companies have jacked up rates recently for their good customers means they should have the funds to absorb these losses.