Last week I was watching someone interview one of the Wall Street "occupiers". This person told the interviewer that he was protesting, among other things, the fact that banks were going to “stick it to us” by charging new fees for debit card usage. Obviously this mental giant had not spent any of his college years in economics class where he might have learned:
2. Debit card systems cost real money to operate. Banks have historically gotten this money from merchant fees every time you used a debit card. Although these fees may have been collected directly from merchants, you paid for them indirectly through the higher prices that merchants had to charge you (see learning #1) whether or not you used a debit card.
3. The new debit card charges are a direct result of Senator Durbin’s amendment to the Dodd-Frank monstrosity that severely limited debit card merchant fees. Banks simply shifted the cost of the debit card system from you indirectly to you directly (see learning #1).
If he wanted want to protest this, why was he not railing against Senator Durbin? Or is there a professional courtesy among the economically ignorant?
No comments:
Post a Comment