Dear Forum,
As many graduate students increasingly finance their graduate educations
with credit cards, it strikes me that strategically it would be wise
to link this to campaigns against banks. For example, in the US Citibank which
was an active player in promulgating third world debt is also an
aggressive hawker of creidt cards in universities across the country.
An interesting campaign in Baltimore, involving Patrick Bond, linked
urban development in this city to larger anti-apartheid issues.
By making such links between domestic and foreign bank policies, we
can increase the constituencies for pressure on banks. Critiques
of credit unions aside, it would also help to promote some kind
of franchised "peoples' bank." Economies of scale could therefore
be exploited by networks as diverse as peace organizations,
radical geographers, labor unions, church groups, etc.
Geographers should also be interested to know that credit card companies
locate in what you might call "remote" places to avoid regulatory laws and
restrictions on their activities.
The New York Times, hardly a left wing publication, reports today
the following story:
March 2, 1999
Sales of Credit Card Accounts Are Hurting Many
Consumers
By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr.
First there was the 5.9 percent teaser rate. When that expired,
the interest rate on Tom Moore's PNC Bank credit card jumped to 14.4
percent. Finally it settled at 12.5 percent. Moore, an illustrator who
lives in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, N.Y., was satisfied.
But last week Moore was stunned to find that he was no longer
a customer of PNC, which is based in Pittsburgh, but of a bank in Oklahoma
he had never heard of. Not only that, but his interest rate had been
jacked up to 20.74 percent -- and 24.74 percent on cash advances...etc.
_________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Jonathan Michael Feldman
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Linkoping University
Teknikringen 4
S-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden
PHONE: 46 13 28 5687
FAX: 46 13 122299
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
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