New credit card laws are upon us and despite headlines heralding a victory for consumers, no one in their right mind could agree. Efforts to cap interest rates (at 15%) were stopped cold by the Senate, which tells you an awful lot. It seems that banks are too big to fail, which means they pay almost ZERO interest on money we lend them--but working people and others stretched to the limit pay 20% and more. They are too little to help.  

The problem is not what will happen going forward, but what has accumulated to date.  American households owe about $10,000 on average and, with huge interest rates in place, have paid off the $10,000 and more, yet still owe it all.

Had Americans been charged fair rates -- the rates that rich people pay -- outstanding credit card debts would be little to none. So, the poverty engulfing America today is in part an outcome of a decade of bank gouging through credit cards. Nothing in the new credit card legislation is going to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the overwhelming number of Americans. 

You hear everywhere the mantra--it's over: America's spending binge is at an end. Tell that to the 30 million plus Americans -- many who work full time -- getting food assistance (read: being so underpaid that their wages don't feed them). You heard it here: that number will be 50 million during Obama's first term. 

Finally, don't expect to work your way out of the hole the credit card companies helped dig for you: what Business Week calls "the unlikely combination of deep recession and rising productivity" packs a wallop. There is plenty of money to be made with fewer workers and now that's reaching into the ranks of white collar workers big time: Since August, 10% of architects were laid off, computer and math jobs were down 9%, and designers 11%. They will now see that along with unemployment comes uncapped, usurious credit card interest rates.

All join the ranks of "too little to help."