In the game of credit cards, consumers have consistently been at the short end of the stick The major banks that provide the cards, and reap the associated profits, have spread enough lobbying money around to Washington lawmakers to keep any regulatory changes that might adversely affect their profits from becoming law for many years

You may have seen a lot of advertising these days about Reverse Mortgages Usually the ads are targeted at Senior Citizens and going for the favorite angle of financial services companies letting us know that reverse mortgages provide "piece of mind"

If you have ever seen a mob movie, you may know that one of the mob's favorite tactics is moving into a neighborhood, making the local businesses pay "protection" money so that their stores don't get trashed by the mob In other words, its a shakedown

Disturbing reports about the "lost decade" of the 2000's have begun to surface, confirming what millions already knew The decade that just past was the first in American history that resulted in zero net job creation and zero income growth

Consumer banks have been in the news a lot lately, namely due to their bad bets on mortgages as well as overall mismanagement Certainly, it would be inaccurate to say this about all banks, but many of the larger banks have been preying on consumers for a long time, while simultaneously advertising that they "really care" about them