Keep the Bank Pirates on the Run

President Obama seems to be hearing the growing outcry against the big bank pirates' declaration of war on the American people through their outrageous increases in credit card interest rates.

On Thursday in this blog I detailed the organized banksters' unleashing of their Weapons of Mass Depression and called on the American people to rise up and demand bold, meaningful action from Congress and the President to force these predators to cease and desist.

We have gotten the attention of the government. On Sunday the Administration announced its intention to move the issue. White House economic advisor Larry Summers said the President is "going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses."

It was also announced that Administration officials will meet at the White House on Thursday with leading executives of the credit card companies.

But what has been proposed so far in Congress does not go nearly far enough. Nothing short of a retroactive federal usury law with real teeth will solve the problem, and that is what we must demand--loudly, forcefully and frequently.

Contact President Obama, Representative Barney Frank, and Senator Chuck Schumer to demand meaningful action now.

The bank pirates are on the run, but this battle--let alone the war--is far from won.

{Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College & author of:
The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Random House) and
Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man" (North Carolina).

His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown).}