There is no time for delay. We need a durable and successful flow of credit in our economy, but we can’t tolerate profits that depend upon misleading working families. Those days are over.
President Barack Obama • In his weekly radio address. Obama wants a bill that limits some of the more predatory aspects of the credit industry. The Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights, currently waiting on a vote in the Senate after it passed the House, is such a bill, but the banking industry is fighting it. Obama wants a bill on his desk by Memorial Day. • source
$1.6 billionCiti’s profits this quarter after over a year of losses and getting bailed out three times by the federal government
$2.5 billionamount Citi gained through a change in the accounting rules that allows them to mark declines in the market value of their debt as profit source